Labossière guilty in killings

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This article was published 02/02/2012 (5210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man has been found guilty of ordering the slaying of his parents and his brother on a farm near St. Leon.

Jérôme Labossière showed no emotion but shook his head as a nine-man, three-woman Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the slaying of his parents, Fernand, 78, Rita, 74, and his brother Rémi, 44, on Nov. 26, 2005.

But the jury, which took about nine hours to reach its verdict, shocked several people in the courtroom when they acquitted Michael Hince, who had been accused of shooting the couple by the Crown’s key witness, who participated in the slayings. Hince visibly expressed relief at the verdict.

Justice Brenda Keyser sentenced Labossière to an automatic life sentence, saying he could apply to another jury for early parole in 15 years, but if that’s rejected he couldn’t apply again until 2033.

“This was a truly monstrous crime,” Keyser told Labossière, who refused to say anything on his behalf.

“It is beyond belief how one could slaughter members of his own family for greed and possible profit.”

Court was told the three were shot and killed in their home before gasoline was poured in their farmhouse and lit, burning their bodies beyond recognition.

The motive for the crime? Relatives testified Jérôme was angry with his brother for getting the farm instead of him and, in his mind, not managing it properly while frittering away his money on gambling. The family farm, worth $1.3 million, was $500,000 in debt at the time.

After the verdict, several of Labossière’s family members expressed satisfaction with his verdict and disbelief with Hince’s acquittal.

“God may forgive you, but I never will,” Paulette Desrochers, Labossière’s older sister, said outside the courthouse and in a victim impact statement.

“We will be scarred forever… my life changed forever on Nov. 26, 2005. My mom, dad and Rémi were gone from our lives.

“How could you personally be part of this terrible tragedy?

“At least I don’t have to move out of Winnipeg now that he is in jail. A lot of us would have had to run for our lives.”

Her sister, Nicole Labossière-Clark, would only say about Hince’s acquittal that “I’m speechless. I’m in shock.”

The verdicts mean the Crown’s key witness, Jeremie Toupin, who court heard shot Rémi to death and accused Hince of shooting the others, was only partially believed by the jury.

It’s also a split victory for the Crown, which had given Toupin a deal where, in return for his testimony, he could plead guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and they would recommend he be able to apply for parole after 10 years instead of 25.

It meant the jury believed Toupin when he said Labossière wanted his parents and brother killed, but thought he was lying when he said Hince helped do the killings.

As well, Hince’s lawyer, Evan Roitenberg, had argued it was impossible for Hince to have been at the murder scene because the facts showed the fire didn’t start before 4:30 a.m., and Hiince was picked up in Winnipeg by a tow truck driver at about 8:30 a.m.

Roitenberg had argued that meant the jury would have had to believe in those few hours, Hince would have time to commit the slayings with Toupin, dispose of the weapons in a river, wait for a passing motorist to go by with a cellphone after they realized they’d also tossed the vehicle’s keys into the water, have Toupin’s brother drive out to get them back to Winnipeg, meet with Jér¥me Labossière, and then dispose the clothes they were wearing.

The verdicts also came after, in what is a rare move, Justice Brenda Keyser gave the jurors only a single choice: find the pair guilty of first-degree murder or find them innocent. Usually judges give jurors in murder trials a chance to substitute lesser convictions, including second-degree murder or manslaughter, if they don’t believe it was first-degree murder.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca