The Crown is appealing the acquittal of two men charged with murder who have made detailed confessions to the crime.
• Also read: Horrified to see the two accused of murdering their son acquitted
“It gives us a little hope. It’s not over until it’s over,” says Lynda Courtemanche, Simon Dufresne’s mother-in-law.
The 31-year-old man disappeared around February 12, 2019. Initially considered a disappearance, the file was quickly treated as a murder by the Sûreté du Québec.
Jonathan Provencher, 43, and Alfredo Farinas Rodriguez, 26, were later charged with first degree murder. But at the end of a trial, on June 27, a jury at the Joliette courthouse found them not guilty of the murder of his son.
With kind approval
Jonathan Provencher was also arrested in this case.
If the 31-year-old man’s body was never found, it is because he was wrapped in plastic bags, cut into pieces and then burned, witnesses said at the trial.
According to the Crown’s theory, Provencher wanted to kill the victim as revenge for a $70,000 theft of cannabis and jewelry.
problems with the proof
Shortly after his arrest in May 2020, one of the defendants himself admitted to police that he was the one who shot Simon Dufresne, the Journal reported last week.
But in its appeal, the Crown, represented by Me Valérie Michaud, believes that “the trial judge erred in law by excluding the extrajudicial testimony of the defendant Rodriguez Farinas.”
Judge François Dadour did not allow these confessions to be produced because the police had violated his right to speak to a lawyer.
However, the jury overheard tapes of Provencher confessing to an undercover officer how the body was disposed of and the involvement of Rodriguez Farinas.
Other person ?
During the trial, the defense attorneys allegedly expressed doubts about the identity of the perpetrator. In fact, despite the confessions obtained during the investigation, they tried to pin the blame on an alleged third party.
This third person was present at the scene but, according to the Crown, would not have taken part in the murder, making him one of their key witnesses at the trial. A publication ban protects his identity.
Judge Dadour has refused to “adequately correct the pleadings of the defendants’ attorneys, particularly their inflammatory, speculative nature and expressing their personal opinion on the credibility of the witnesses, which rendered the trial unfair,” the Crown alleges, demanding that a new process is arranged.
A third defendant, Jonathan Tshinkenke, 22, of Montreal, was due to appear in court in September. He was charged with conspiracy, aiding and abetting murder and compulsory detention.
However, the head of the criminal and prosecution agency earlier this month issued a nolle prosequi against three other defendants, including Tshinkenke. This suspension of proceedings allows the DPCP to resume proceedings within the next 12 months.
Tshinkenke is currently serving an eight-year sentence in Montreal in 2019 for fulfilling a “wheelchair contract” aimed at shooting a person in the legs without killing them.
– With the collaboration of Valérie Gonthier and Claudia Berthiaume
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