Aaliyah Rosa. File photo

Trial resumes against Langley mother accused of murdering 7-year-old daughter

KerryAnn Lewis charged with first-degree murder after Aaliyah Rosa was found dead in her Langley apartment in 2018

  • May. 29, 2021 12:00 a.m.

Editor’s Note: This story contains disturbing details of an alleged murder

The lengthy trial of a Langley woman accused of killing her seven-year-old daughter is scheduled to start hearing from its final witness on Monday, May 31.

The first-degree murder trial of KerryAnn Lewis began last fall, and was expected to wrap up sometime before the end of the year.

However, a combination of delays due to COVID-19 and a pair of late witnesses extended it by almost six months.

Lewis is accused of killing Aaliyah Rosa, who was found dead in Lewis’s Langley apartment on July 22, 2018.

The Crown prosecutors have called witnesses including police officers, the witnesses who found the body, and Aaliyah’s father, Steven Rosa.

The Crown’s case is that Lewis, distraught over her limited access to her daughter, gave the young girl a mixture of over-the-counter and prescription medication before drowning her in a bathtub.

The defense brought forward a witness who raised questions about Aaliyah’s cause of death.

Dr. Christopher Dunham, a pediatric neuropathologist at B.C. Children’s Hospital, said that his examination of the evidence suggested Aaliyah had a pre-existing condition that could have meant a seemingly minor blow to the head could have caused her death.

In April, Justice Martha Devlin said she will allow one final witness to testify for the Crown as well, Dr. Marc Del Bigio, a neuropathologist and professor at the University of Manitoba. He’ll be testifying as a rebuttal witness about the medical evidence.

READ MORE: Crown wrangles with witness over cause of death in Langley child murder trial

READ MORE: Accused wanted to die to be together with her daughter, witness testifies at Langley murder trial


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