Suspect posted ad offering bounty on officer, jury told
Trial hears of online classified that boasted about $1,000 reward to kill spokesperson
Montreal police had little difficulty locating the man they suspected was the author of an online ad offering $1,000 to anyone willing to kill one of its best known spokespeople.
Anatoliy Vdovin, 48, is alleged to have accessed the internet at the Westmount Library to post an online ad through which he offered to pay anyone willing to kill Montreal police Commander Ian Lafrenière.
As he was described in court, Lafrenière, the head of the media relations department, was at the time one of the best known spokespersons for the police force. The ad was posted to the online classified ad site Craigslist on April 4, 2013.
Vdovin’s jury trial began at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday. He is charged with counselling people to commit the murder of Lafrenière by having posted the classified ad.
Vdovin has pleaded not guilty. In her opening statement to the jury, composed of eight women and four men, prosecutor Geneviève Rondeau-Marchand said Montreal police took action immediately after someone reported the ad to them.
A similar item was posted on a second site called Adcentre and the investigation led police to the Westmount Library’s Internet protocol, or IP address (an internet modem’s unique address).
Investigators viewed footage captured by security cameras inside the library to pin down the person behind the ad. Six days after it was posted, investigators finally settled on who their suspect was and began to show images of the man to staff at the library.
“Someone pointed out that the accused was sitting at a table (in the library) with his laptop open,” Rondeau-Marchand said.
Vdovin was arrested on the spot and a search of his computer turned up two different photos of Lafrenière. One was a photo of the spokesperson with several media microphones in front of him while he apparently did a scrum with reporters following an event. The other was the same photo, but someone had superimposed a red dot at the centre of Lafrenière’s forehead.
The photo with the red dot was the same one used in the Craigslist ad posted under the title “Wanted Dead (Everywhere).” The person who posted the ad also wrote: “This piece of slime. Wanted dead. Reward $1,000. Isn’t worth more.”
The ad claimed to be from the “James Roszko Foundation for Justice.”
A more thorough search of Vdovin’s computer confirmed the browser was on the Craigslist site at the time the ad was posted.
Superior Court Justice Stephen Hamilton, the presiding judge in the trial, told the jury there are three elements the Crown is required to prove in order to convict Vdovin of the charge.
The prosecution is required to prove the accused counselled the murder, intended to have the murder carried out and that the murder was not committed.
Hamilton assured the jury there is no need to prove the last element as Lafrenière is alive and well.
Rondeau-Marchand did not say what possible motive might have been behind the ads.