14-year term for killing fuelled by drugs
A Gatineau man who admitted to killing his friend in what he claims was an accident fuelled by drugs and alcohol was sentenced to a 14year prison term at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday.
Philippe Steele-Morin, 35, of Gatineau received an 11-year prison term for killing Tricia Boisvert inside her Montreal apartment on Jan. 17, 2014. Superior Court Justice Pierre Labrie also ordered that Steele-Morin serve another three years consecutively for hiding Boisvert’s body in an attempt to cover up his crime. He has already served the equivalent of a little more than five years while awaiting the outcome of his case.
Crown prosecutor Delphine Mauger had asked that SteeleMorin be sentenced to a total of 16 years while defence lawyer Alan Guttman asked for 10.
In December, Steele-Morin pleaded guilty to manslaughter and to having improperly or indecently interfered with a body by hiding it in a wooded area in Quyon, a small town in the Outaouais region.
In the hours before she died, Steele-Morin went to her apartment to hide because he was on probation and was trying to avoid being arrested on warrants in criminal cases that were pending against him. He also said that he and Boisvert consumed a lot of alcohol and that she took MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, that night before they fell asleep.
According to the statement of facts read into the court record in December: “At some point during the night, the victim began grabbing the accused’s pants. He recalls reflexively pushing her away and fell right back to sleep. Later on, he awakened to find the victim on top of him. He vaguely remembers hitting the victim, including a punch and thrusting her off him. He was heavily intoxicated and has only partial recollection of what happened. He passed out again.”
Steele-Morin said he panicked when he woke up the following morning and found Boisvert’s lifeless body. An autopsy revealed that Boisvert died of manual strangulation, or asphyxia caused by a compression of the neck.