Grandma | A 66-year-old woman who allegedly took advantage of her roommate, who had a mild intellectual disability, for months killed him in her Granby apartment last week.
• Also read – Granby: The man found dead last week was the victim of a murder
“She’s been screaming at him since January. She stirred it up quite a bit. We didn’t think it would come to this,” said Michel Lavallée, 49, a few hours after his upstairs neighbor Claudette Hamel was arrested Wednesday morning.
The drama took place a week earlier in an eight-unit building on Rue du Center in Granby.
Michel Lavallée, a neighbor of the Granby apartment where Claudette Hamel allegedly killed a 68-year-old man. Photo Jonathan Tremblay
“At 3 a.m. we heard a big bang. Then in the morning the authorities arrived,” Mr. Lavallée explained.
The victim, Réjean Plourde, had been living at home for several months. However, the two did not form a couple.
According to members of Mr. Plourde's entourage, the defendant isolated him from his relatives and an abusive relationship developed.
“He's a man who wouldn't have hurt a fly. He was friendly, said another neighbor who insisted on remaining anonymous. It's boring, but she insulted him a lot. She was really mean to him. She thought he was a slave.”
Finally charged
Claudette Hamel was finally charged with first-degree murder in the death of the 68-year-old man at the Granby Courthouse on Wednesday afternoon.
“Do I have to be in prison with my health?” she asked during her appearance via video conference.
At the time, Hamel, dressed in a Montreal Canadiens jersey, sat with a cane not far from her chair in a room at the Granby police station.
However, she must remain in custody at least until her next court appearance at the end of April. His lawyers, me Marianne Galipeau-Théroux and I Catherine Pilon, intend to have the evidence in the file by then.
Suspicious death
Hamel was quickly arrested after her roommate's body was found. However, she was released because Granby police considered this case a suspicious death and did not know whether it was a murder, an accident or a voluntary act.
Through the analysis of the crime scene, various investigative steps and the results of the autopsy, it was finally determined that the sixty-year-old had actually been the victim of murder.
“There are elements of the investigation that confirmed that there is a reasonable likelihood of a conviction for second-degree murder,” Me Simon Lacoste, working with Me Vicky Gallant for the prosecution, stated simply.
The defendant had already been convicted of assault in 2009. She received one year of probation and 50 hours of community service.
With Valérie Gonthier and Maxime Deland, QMI Agency
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