A cry of relief erupted in a downtown courtroom on Friday after Cindy Ali, a mother from Toronto previously convicted of killing her disabled teenage daughter, was acquitted of first-degree murder charges.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly delivered the verdict in a courtroom filled with Cindy's family, friends, and supporters, finding Cindy not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. After more than a year of investigation by Toronto Police, Cindy was charged in March 2012 with manslaughter, which was upgraded seven months later to first-degree murder, and when the case went to trial five years later, the jury convicted Cindy of murder.

In 2021, this conviction was successfully appealed when the Ontario Court of Appeal found that the jury received incorrect instructions from the trial judge, leading them to make an uninformed decision.

Cindy told reporters outside the courtroom on Friday: "It feels good to be free, and now it is time for us as a family to start healing and try to bring some normal life back into our lives."

Her daughter Sinara died in February 2011, and according to her testimony, Cindy always maintained that Sinara died after two men broke into her Scarborough home looking for a "parcel." She told police officers that one of the men forced her to move from room to room searching for the parcel, and when she returned to the living room, Sinara was dead on the couch while the other man stood over her holding a pillow. The two men were never found, and after Cindy called 911 to report the break-in, paramedics found Sinara without vital signs, revived her, and transported her to the hospital, where she died the next day.

Kelly wrote in her decision released along with her verdict: After reviewing all the evidence in this case, I have a reasonable doubt that Cindy is guilty, therefore I declare her not guilty of first-degree murder
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