Mother rages as killer smirks during sentencing
Their feud simmered in jail and ended in broad daylight on a Vanier street corner.
Devon Labelle, 24, had just come out of a drugstore on Montreal Road and was standing on the sidewalk when his killer drew a butcher’s knife in a confrontation around 3:20 p.m. on April 27, 2017.
Kirvens Lamarre, 24, thrust the large knife into the right side of Labelle’s neck until it exited on the left. Labelle, a young father, died as passersby on the busy corner tried in vain to help him. The wound was described in court as catastrophic.
And while Labelle was bleeding out, his killer ran away as fast as he could, bloody knife in hand.
Lamarre was originally charged by Ottawa police with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter in a deal. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to nine years in prison and, at various times, could be seen smiling in the prisoner’s box.
When Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett afforded him a chance to address the court, he declined. Lamarre said his lawyer had said it all for him during sentencing submissions. Leo Russomanno told court his client had expressed remorse and wasn’t looking for a fight on the day in question.
When Annie Jasey, the slain man’s mother, seated in the front of the court gallery, heard that, she interrupted with “Really? F--k You!”
In an agreed statement of facts filed in court, Lamarre and Labelle were involved in a fight at the Ottawa jail months before the killing. In that jail fight, it was Labelle who threw the first punch before guards at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre intervened. Both Lamarre and Labelle declined to file charges regarding the 2016 jail fight.
Lamarre was credited for time served in custody while awaiting trial, so his actual sentence is nine years minus 1,045 days.