(Longueuil) Real estate developer Jean-François Malo, accused of hiring assassins to kill a Desjardins lawyer, has again failed to stop the court case, two weeks after rejecting his Jordan-like request. The indictment alone was an “abuse of process,” said Malo.
Posted at 3:00 p.m.
The 45-year-old, a large real estate developer from Joliette, has been accused of serious criminal charges since 2020: attempted murder, firing a firearm with intent to endanger life, obstruction of justice and intimidation. His trial is scheduled for next March at the Longueuil courthouse.
In 2020, Jean-François Malo was involved in a series of civil disputes regarding fraudulent actions with Desjardins Assurances Générales. According to the Crown's theory, the defendant, out of anger, ordered an attack against one of Desjardins' lawyers, Me Nicholas Daudelin. He would have hired two henchmen to kill him.
According to the Crown, Jean-François Malo had in his office a list of people and participants in the justice system who were described as enemies. And Mr. Daudelin's name was there.
One evening in March 2020, two accomplices shot at Me Daudelin's apartment. One of the four bullets hit the civil lawyer. According to the Crown, the two accomplices went to Malo's office in Joliette after the attempted murder.
Daouda Dieng and Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Ndiaye were sentenced last year to nine and 10 years in prison respectively for dangerously firing a firearm.
In mid-January, Jean-François Malo failed to obtain a stay of the proceedings due to unreasonable delays (Jordan judgment). This time he denounced an “abuse of process” simply because he had been accused of attempted murder and that a firearm had been fired at the complainant. He therefore called for the court proceedings to be discontinued.
According to Malo, the attempted murder charge “could not apply” because he was accused of being the instigator of the attack and of not directly committing the crime. He believes he should have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder instead.
He also claims that the offense of “attempted murder through complicity” does not exist. In addition, it was impossible to “order an attempt to kill,” the defense argued.
The arguments were rejected in their entirety by Judge Dannie Leblanc on Monday.
“It is possible and plausible to imagine that the original plan might be to kill someone, but carrying out the crime results in the person not dying. The specific intention was always to cause death. “The fact that they survived the attack means that those responsible are not accused of murder, but of attempted murder,” the judge analyzes.
In addition, Jean-François Malo called for the case to be dropped because, in his opinion, the very fact that he had suffered from the “stigma” of the accusation, without any evidence, had caused him serious harm. The judge said it was “unusual” to complain about this less than two months before the trial, while he had not challenged his referral to the trial three years ago.
Two motions to exclude evidence must be heard before the trial in March next year.
I Tian Meng and I Marilyn L'Italien-Leblanc represent the prosecutor. I Karl-Emmanuel Harrison defends the defendant.