Accused killers’ lawyer seeks to recuse herself after jail beating
One client allegedly attacked another, leaving him with severe head injuries
Days before accused killer Mohamad Barkhadle was scheduled to appear in court, his defence lawyer Diane Condo has filed an application to remove herself as counsel of record after Barkhadle allegedly attacked another of Condo’s clients.
Accused killer Marco Michaud, 36, is on life support after a vicious beating Wednesday afternoon at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre on Innes Road. Barkhadle is one of his alleged attackers and Michaud may not survive the beating, according to court filings.
Condo, who represents both accused killers, was compelled to file the application on the grounds of conflict of interest. Condo also sought advice from the Law Society of Ontario after her client was accused in the severe beating that was captured on security video.
The application, if successful, will derail a scheduled preliminary hearing for Barkhadle on Monday. It also means Condo would no longer represent Michaud.
Barkhadle is accused of firstdegree murder in the July 2017 death of a 35-year-old mother on the fifth-floor apartment of a public housing building in Mechanicsville. Her body was not discovered for 10 days, and her two-year-old boy had to fend for himself.
Michaud, who was in jail awaiting trial on a charge of second-degree murder, was left with severe head injuries after the beating.
He had turned himself in to homicide detectives just six weeks ago, on Feb. 24, after police obtained a warrant for his arrest for an ultimately fatal beating in Vanier. Michaud, surrounded by family at hospital on Friday, had hoped to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Detectives allege Michaud attacked 53-year-old Gerald Leduc inside Leduc’s Selkirk Street apartment in July 2017. That drug-related beating left Leduc in a coma for six months. He succumbed to his injuries in January, at which point, police started investigating the attack as a homicide. Michaud had been housed at the jail since turning himself in.
Michaud, originally from Timmins, Ont., and a father of one, is a convicted drug dealer with a lengthy criminal record dating back nearly two decades. He has spent considerable time in and out of jail for convictions for drug possession, possessing a dangerous weapon, arson and robbery.
In November 2015, having recently been released from a three-year custodial sentence and beginning a job with a drywall company, Michaud posted on Facebook about how good it felt to go Christmas shopping for his child with “legal money.”
By the following month, he had been let go and detailed his struggle “to be legit and honest” and stay gainfully employed in what appeared to be his first legitimate job.
In January 2016, he told friends he was heading out west to work and would be back in September.
He returned to Ottawa sometime before July 2017, when police believe Leduc was beaten.
Police believe Barkhadle and two other inmates attacked Michaud Wednesday. It’s not yet known what sparked the violence. No charges have yet been laid, but court filings say charges are expected.
Defence lawyer Condo declined to comment.