Tshilumba found guilty of murder
Killer’s motive for fatally stabbing supermarket worker remains unclear
For Nathalie Beaulieu, forgiveness is not a necessary part of mourning.
The mother of Clémence Beaulieu-Patry, the 20-year-old woman who was stabbed to death while she was working overtime at a supermarket last year, was not in a forgiving mood Friday afternoon after a jury found Randy Tshilumba, 21, guilty of first-degree murder.
The victim’s mother let out an audible gasp when the jury foreman read the verdict out loud. She appeared confused at first but then sobbed as Superior Court Justice Hélène Di Salvo took the unusual step of setting aside a date next week to sentence Tshilumba. With the verdict he automatically receives a life sentence and will be eligible for full parole after he serves 25 years behind bars. Di Salvo, a former prosecutor who handled many murder cases in the past, said she wanted to give Beaulieu and the victim’s father, Luc Patry, a chance to speak on the record on behalf of their daughter.
“Some cases are more difficult than others,” Di Salvo said while explaining to provincial detention centre guards why she was issuing an order to have Tshilumba returned to the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday.
Beaulieu told reporters that, as the jurors entered with their verdict prepared, she noticed one of the 12 looked toward her.
“I sensed it was going to be good for us,” the victim’s mother said as tears streamed down her face. “My sun shines bright today.”
It was a reference to how, earlier in the week, she referred to her daughter as being “like the sun” to her while she was alive.
When asked if she could ever forgive Tshilumba for what he did, Beaulieu said she recently read a lot of material on restorative justice — when an offender attempts to repair the harm they have done by eventually addressing the victim’s family. She said she found it interesting but not for her.
“I will never forgive him. You don’t have to forgive as a means to mourn.” Beaulieu said.
The jury was in its fourth day of deliberation when it reached its decision. Defence lawyers Philippe Larochelle and Sébastien Chartrand fought an uphill battle because the Crown had evidence Tshilumba planned the murder, carried it out and tried to hide evidence afterward. What the Crown did not have was a clear motive. Tshilumba and Beaulieu-Patry attended the same high school together but barely knew each other.
Tshilumba provided what appeared to be convincing testimony that he somehow believed Beaulieu-Patry and four or five of her friends had, for several months, posted anonymous messages, on an Facebook page called Spotted, that were intended to intimidate him. He said he eventually believed the women intended to harm him and that he went to the supermarket, on April 10, 2016, to “make peace” with her. He said he stabbed her because she made what he interpreted to be a threatening gesture (by pointing her index finger). What he could not explain was how security cameras inside the supermarket captured how he appeared to go out of his way before he approached the victim from behind. He also could not explain why he brought a pair of gloves and was apparently carrying the murder weapon, a knife, inside his jeans pocket when he entered the store.
The Crown also proved that Tshilumba tried to hide the knife, gloves and the clothes he was wearing when he carried out the murder inside a gym locker at his CEGEP the day after Beaulieu-Patry was killed.
Besides Tshilumba’s testimony, the defence also called two psychiatrists as witnesses who said that, in their opinion, the accused was not criminally responsible for his actions on the day of the murder. They did not agree on what mental illness he suffers from.
Tshilumba registered barely a reaction when the verdict was read. His unusually puffy face (in particular his eyelids) revealed little emotion and he appeared to be fatigued, as he had throughout his trial. During the trial one of the psychiatrists revealed Tshilumba, who is currently detained while being treated at the Philippe Pinel Institute, was taking antipsychotic medication before and throughout his trial.
“It’s something that we will never know,” prosecutor Catherine Perreault said when asked how she thought the jury interpreted the defence’s position that Tshilumba was not able to distinguish right from wrong. Jury deliberations in Canada are secret and it is illegal for a juror to comment on them without first obtaining a court order.
Perreault said the prosecution presented many elements to show the murder was planned and premeditated and that Tshilumba tried to hide the crime. She also said she was “very satisfied and very happy” with the verdict.
“Our thoughts go out to the family of the victim,” she said. “It’s a very long process for them.”
I will never forgive him. You don’t have to forgive as a means to mourn.