Supreme Court to hear suicide-pact case
Gauthier appeals 2009 murder conviction for drugging death of three children, husband
OTTAWA – A Quebec woman who survived a family murder-suicide pact, but whose husband and three young children did not, will have the chance to appeal three counts of first-degree murder in front of Canada’s top court.
The Supreme Court of Canada announced Thursday that it will hear the case of Cathie Gauthier, who was convicted in the deaths of her three children in 2009.
The children were Joëlle,
“It was a pact – my husband killed our three children.”
CATHIE GAUTHIER
12; Marc-ange, 7; and LouisPhilippe, 4.
The bodies of Gauthier’s children and her husband, Marc Laliberté, were found by police in their rented house in Chicoutimi after Gauthier placed a frantic call to 911 just before midnight on New Year’s Day 2009.
According to court documents, Gauthier told the operator her wrist was cut and she needed an ambulance. The operator asked if she had tried to commit suicide.
“It was a pact – my husband killed our three children,” Gauthier said. “We said we wouldn’t start 2009, but ...”
Gauthier told the operator her husband had cut her wrist and drugged everyone with sleeping pills. She shook the children, she told the operator, but they did not respond.
The children died after ingesting a mix of an anti-nausea medication and a mild tranquillizer prescribed to both parents. They were found lying in their parents’ bed.
Laliberté died of blood loss due to a cut on his wrist and of a heart condition. He was found on the bedroom floor with a knife next to him.
Quebec Superior Court heard that Gauthier waited several hours after waking up in bed next to her dead children to call 911.
Defence had argued Gauthier’s husband was the only one to blame for the deaths, and that Gauthier told her husband she didn’t want to be a part of his plan.
The judge noted Gauthier bought the drugs that killed her children and that a person who helps or encourages someone to commit a crime is as much responsible as the person who committed the crime.
Gauthier appealed her guilty verdict in July 2011, with her lawyer claiming the judge did not adequately instruct the jury and that, through the media, the jury was allowed to hear about Gauthier’s subsequent suicide attempt.
The case was dismissed on the ground that she should have prevented the children from drinking the beverages prepared by her husband.
Gauthier filed an application for leave to appeal with the Supreme Court in September 2011.