Accused confesses on stand to killing, then apologizes
22-year-old tells court he was too drunk to recall stabbing Carleton student
Jorden Larocque-Laplante says he was so drunk he doesn’t remember killing Abdullah Al-Tutunji outside a McDonald’s on a Sunday morning.
But after reviewing security video in court, he confessed on the stand at his second-degree murder trial Friday and apologized to the victim’s family.
It was him who killed Al-Tutunji, a Carleton University student described as well-raised and peaceful. He killed him with a knife, stabbing him at least nine times around 2:45 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2016.
Larocque-Laplante, 22, had taken the stand in his own defence Friday, telling a jury he couldn’t recall a single thing about killing Al-Tutunji, 20.
The stabbing was captured on security video that was played in court. And while Larocque-Laplante maintains he blacked out, he acknowledged it’s him in the video, the man with the army knife chasing Al-Tutunji and a friend in the parking lot after an early morning fast-food run.
In an admission that silenced the courtroom, Larocque-Laplante confessed under oath.
“Yes, I admit to it,” he said under examination-in-chief by defence lawyer Mark Ertel.
Larocque-Laplante then apologized.
“I feel sad and (I) feel sorry for the friends and family of Abdullah Al-Tutunji. I have no idea what you guys are going through,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
He also told the jury that he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death. Or rather, he tried to, but the Crown attorneys refused and took it to trial with a pile of evidence, anchored in security video that shows Larocque-Laplante following Al-Tutunji from the McDonald’s then confronting the two men outside, at one point chasing Al-Tutunji’s friend in a circle, then running into Al-Tutunji, who, moments later, falls to the ground.
Larocque-Laplante said he tried to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the hope the evidence shows he may have been too drunk to know that his actions would lead to Al-Tutunji’s death, or to form an intent to kill.
Al-Tutunji was studying environmental engineering at Carleton.
Larocque-Laplante had been unemployed for a year after getting fired as an auto-parts delivery man.
Larocque-Laplante spent the day of Dec. 10, 2016 playing video games and watching movies.
Then he wanted to go drinking, so he and a buddy picked up a 28pack of beer and went over to an uncle’s place to watch Saturday night hockey.
He started drinking in the car and continued drinking throughout the game. Larocque-Laplante doesn’t recall a lot from that night; he had up to 17 beers. But he does recall who was playing and that it was a high-scoring game with the Habs cleaning house.
Larocque-Laplante told court he grew up in public housing down the road from the McDonald’s near the corner of Meadowlands and Prince of Wales Drive.
He had been going to that same McDonald’s all his life.
He told court he remembers getting a drive home on Debra Road, and then his last memory is getting out of his mother’s car at the Civic Hospital, where he collapsed in the front lobby. His leg was bleeding and he had cuts and bruising across his face.
He told court that he bought the army knife for car repairs, but Crown attorney Mark Moors quickly established in cross-examination that there were no auto repairs that day.
“Can you give us any reason that you had it that day?” Moors pressed.
“No, I can’t,” Larocque-Laplante replied.
Larocque-Laplante testified he couldn’t recall a thing about the deadly stabbing.
“I can’t remember anything. I’ve tried to remember what happened but I can’t,” he told the jury.
He said it was one of his worst blackouts. He told court that he blacked out every four out of 10 nights he was drinking.
Moors also established that Larocque-Laplante told different stories under oath about his addiction.
At an unsuccessful bail hearing in January 2017, Larocque-Laplante testified he thought he might have a drinking problem, but on Friday he said he didn’t.
The jury can either find him not guilty of second-degree murder, or guilty of second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter.