Murder trial comes to abrupt end Prosecution no longer believes N.D.G. man killed his girlfriend
PAUL CHERRY
Michael Gero’s murder trial came to an abrupt — and dramatic — end Tuesday when the jury was informed the Crown no longer believes he killed his girlfriend, Sherri Thomas.
The first sign the Crown’s position had swung 180 degrees came Thursday, when prosecutor Jacques Dagenais made a surprise announcement, in the jury’s absence, that he wanted to ask them to acquit Gero, 27, on the seconddegree murder charge. At that moment, Dagenais was expected to begin his closing arguments. Instead, Superior Court Justice Hélène Di Salvo sent the 12 jurors home with instructions to expect to return soon. Gero was charged, on Nov. 20, 2013, with the seconddegree murder of 19-year-old Sherri Thomas, his girlfriend for more than a year. The day before, police found Thomas lying on the kitchen floor of the apartment the couple lived in. She died after having been taken to a hospital.
The trial began on Feb. 10 and Gero testified in his own defence 10 days later. It was his testimony that convinced Dagenais he could no longer argue the Crown believed he shot Thomas.
“As a prosecutor, I have to have, throughout the entire trial, the moral conviction that a crime was committed,” Dagenais told Di Salvo on Thursday about why he wanted to ask the jury to acquit Gero. “I have no argument to demonstrate he shot the victim. We believed we had good evidence, but I have no argument to submit to the jury.”
Di Salvo countered that for a prosecutor to make such a request to a jury during closing arguments, there would have to be “a total absence of evidence” Gero shot Thomas. She noted that “there was blood everywhere” in the couple’s apartment and that she found there were contradictions in Gero’s testimony.
The judge asked Dagenais to consider other options and, on Monday, he announced that the Crown simply would no longer prosecute Gero.
He submitted a letter signed by Nathalie Brissette, the head of the Montreal prosecutors’ bureau, stating “the proceedings have stopped under my order relative to” the murder charge filed against Gero three years ago.
Di Salvo accepted the request and placed a stay of proceedings on the murder charge, which means it will remain in a form of limbo for a year unless new evidence emerges in Thomas’s death.
Everything said in the case from Thursday to Monday was placed under a publication ban until the jury returned Tuesday morning. Di Salvo told the jury that the development was exceptional, “very, very, very rare” and something that almost never happens in Canadian courts.
“You have no verdict to render,” Di Salvo said before thanking the jurors for the professionalism they displayed throughout the trial. She also explained to them that under the Criminal Code of Canada, a prosecutor is under no obligation to explain why they are requesting a stay of proceedings in a case. As the jury exited the courtroom, only one member of the panel had a smile on their face.
After the stay of proceedings was made official on Monday, Gero pleaded guilty to two charges related to the firearm found on the roof of the apartment building on Grand Blvd., where he and Thomas lived. Gero admitted to being in possession of a prohibited firearm and to violating a court order by possessing the firearm — a starter’s pistol designed to fire blanks that had been modified to fire .22-calibre bullets.
He told the jury last week that he kept the firearm (since 2005 or 2006) for protection when he used to sell crack cocaine. He was under a court order not to possess it following his conviction, on Nov. 10, 2011, for his role in the armed robbery of a man who made deliveries for a convenience store in Lachine.
An autopsy revealed that Thomas had been shot once to the left side of her head, just above her ear. The jury was told during the trial that Thomas was left-handed and an expert testified that it was possible, based on forensic evidence, that she committed suicide. At other points in the trial, the jury was told that Gero called 911 after Thomas was shot and that he asked a neighbour for help afterward.
During the 911 call, Gero is heard yelling hysterically. The operator had difficulty making out what he said.
“She’s shot in the head. If you do not come now she is going to die,” Gero is heard saying at one point, sounding very emotional. “She’s f--king dying!”
On Tuesday, Dagenais and Gero’s lawyer, David Petranic, made a joint recommendation that Gero be sentenced to the time he has already served behind bars plus one additional day as a formality. Dagenais said Gero has already served 39 months since his arrest in 2013, which works out to the equivalent of more than 58 months. Every day spent behind bars awaiting the outcome of their case counts as a day and a half for a person accused of a crime. Technically, the time Gero has served exceeds the four-year sentence recommended by the attorneys.
Di Salvo said she will make a decision on the sentence on Wednesday. She did not appear to be impressed with what she heard.
“The fact that this gun killed someone? How do you see this?” Di Salvo asked Petranic.
“(Thomas) was aware of the gun and she was OK with it (being in their apartment),” Petranic said. “On my side I don’t think it’s an aggravating factor.”
“In all fairness, we do not know who loaded this gun,” Dagenais added.
Outside the courtroom, Petranic told reporters that Gero has no plans to pursue the justice system for having been charged with murder.
“Listen, this is a sad story for my client and for the family of the person who died, (Sherri) Thomas. It’s a story where there is no winner. Mr. Gero lost three years of his life behind bars and he lost a person he loved very much. He had to wait three years to tell his story to the court. My client sees no reason at all to take certain (legal) steps.
“I don’t think he’s angry. I think for him he sees the end of it and I think he’s thinking more of the future than the fact he spent three years (detained).”
While arguing in support of the sentencing recommendation, Petranic said that at the time of Thomas’s death Gero was trying to put a life of crime behind him and was attending school five days a week.
When asked if Dagenais’s decision last week surprised him, Petranic said: “From the start, Mr. Gero had one line to follow in terms of his defence. We have always said he was innocent and that is what has come out, even from the (prosecution).”
Petranic said Gero told police after his arrest that he was in the shower and heard a “loud sound.” When he got out he found Thomas on the floor. But he did not tell the police that he had tossed the firearm on the roof of the apartment building.
“One thing that he always mentioned (since his arrest) was that he was not behind the gun,” Petranic said.