Suspect in family killings said mom not involved

Tooba Mohammad Yahya and husband Mohammad Shafia and their son Hamed Mohammed Shafia are escorted by police officers into the Frontenac County Court courthouse on the first day of trial in Kingston, Ontario on Thursday, October 20, 2011. They are charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Shafia's daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti Shafia,13, and Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, who were found dead inside a submerged car in the Rideau Canal in June of 2009. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

KINGSTON, Ont. — A young man accused, along with his parents, of killing his three sisters told a police interrogator his mother had nothing to do with the deaths and that she had been talking about suicide, court heard Tuesday.
The jury in the murder trial watched a video of the interrogation of Hamed Shafia, 20, after he was arrested more than two years ago in the deaths of his sisters and one of his father's two wives in a polygamous marriage.
Three teenage Shafia sisters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, were found dead inside a car submerged in the Rideau Canal in June 2009. The Montreal family had stopped in Kingston, Ont., on their way home from a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont.
The police officers who took turns interrogating Hamed press him on inconsistencies in his story. He mostly sticks to the story he and his parents originally told police -- that they had no idea what happened and the car ending up in the canal must have been a terrible accident.
But at one point, Det.-Const. Steve Koopman tells Hamed they can place him at the scene, and asks, "Did you mean to get involved with this?"
"No," Hamed replies, hanging his head.
He asks about his mother and says she has not been doing well since the deaths and has even talked about suicide.
"My mom, she doesn't have anything to do with it," Hamed says. "I told you before. she's like nothing to do with it because she was not even herself that night. She was really tired, she had no idea where we are and everything."
She took some pills and fell asleep, he adds.
Hamed, his mother Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, and his father Mohammad Shafia, 58, have each pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.
For the rest of the interview Hamed asserts his innocence and presses the police officers to disclose what evidence they have against him so he can clear up any "misunderstandings." But the officers point out that he cannot explain why pieces of a headlight of the family's Lexus SUV, which Hamed said he was driving that night, ended up at the scene.
The Crown alleges the accused used the Lexus to push the other car into the water with the four victims inside.
The jury has previously watched the interrogations of Yahya and Shafia. During Yahya's six-hour interrogation, she admits that the three of them were at the scene that night, but that she fainted and didn't know what happened. She recanted that statement the next day, court heard.