Inmate beaten to death for few grams of tobacco, court told
A man who was killed at the Montreal Detention Centre nearly two years ago was beaten to death by three fellow inmates for just a few grams of tobacco, the prosecutor in the murder trial of the trio told a jury on Monday.
“All this for a few unfortunate grams of tobacco,” prosecutor Louis Bouthillier said at the Montreal courthouse in the morning while summarizing the Crown’s theory in the death of Michael Barrette, 46, who was killed on June 21, 2016, just a couple of days after he arrived at the provincial detention centre commonly referred to as the Bordeaux jail.
Bouthillier said the prosecution’s theory is that three men who were incarcerated in the same sector as Barrette — Tarik Biji, 39, Garmy Guerrier, 31, and Jason Côté, 32 — tried to “tax” Barrette after realizing he had managed to smuggle a small quantity of tobacco into the detention centre by hiding it in his anus. Bouthillier said that although smoking is prohibited inside the detention centre, other inmates could smell burning tobacco coming from Barrette’s cell shortly before he was killed.
The three accused are charged with first-degree murder.
The prosecutor said Biji was the head of an inmate’s committee at the time and that his title was referenced when Barrette was summoned to Biji’s cell.
Once inside, Barrette was severely beaten by the three accused, Bouthillier added. The victim suffered a fractured skull, several fractures to his ribs and one of his lungs was punctured twice.
An autopsy revealed he bled to death internally. The prosecutor said the jury will be presented with evidence that indicates Barrette was beaten over a period of 23 minutes.
Barrette was a thin man who stood six feet tall and weighed 153 pounds. Bouthillier said he was a heroin addict who, at the time, was undergoing a program in which he was using methadone to treat his addiction.
Bouthillier also noted it took more than two hours before anyone in authority at the detention centre noticed Barrette had been beaten.
He was declared dead shortly after ambulance technicians tried to revive him. Bouthillier said the sector was overcrowded, and the first witness called to testify on Monday, Caroline Jean, a crime scene technician for the Sûreté du Québec, showed the jury a diagram revealing the cell Barrette was assaulted in was at the opposite end of the sector from where the guard’s station is located.
Jean showed the jury photos of Barrette’s body, which was on an ambulance stretcher when she arrived. Barrette’s neck was still in a brace and various tubes used in the attempt to revive him were still attached to his body. At least half of Barrette’s back was covered in bruises.
His chest was also covered in bruises and lacerations were visible on his tattoo-covered arms.
Video cameras captured images of the accused entering and leaving the cell where Barrette was beaten, but there are no cameras inside inmate cells in that part of the detention centre.
However, Bouthillier said, two other inmates will testify about how they saw the assault and what happened after. He added that one of the witnesses will testify that he tried to come to the aid of his cellmate, but that Biji held him back.
The trial will resume on Tuesday.