Crown finishes presenting evidence in Daudelin murder trial
The Crown has finished presenting its evidence in the Éric Daudelin murder trial.
After hearing evidence for a little more than seven days, the six men and six women who make up the jury in Laval were informed Wednesday, by prosecutor Pierre-Luc Rolland, that a video they were shown the previous day was the last part of the prosecution’s evidence in the case. Daudelin is charged with the sexual assault and death of Joleil Campeau, a 9-year-old Laval girl whose body was found on June 16, 1995, submerged in a creek near her family’s home.
The video the jury watched on Tuesday showed Daudelin, 40, telling a man he believed was a crime boss that he drowned Joleil in the creek after attempting to rape her. The man, assigned the alias Robert for this trial, was actually an undercover police officer who was the key part of a 2011 sting operation designed to get Daudelin to talk about the long unsolved murder.
Defence lawyer Gilles Daudelin (no relation to the accused) crossexamined Robert and another undercover agent who took part in the operation — named Claude for this trial — Wednesday morning. Rolland then filed a few documents related to the video for the jury to see and said the Crown was done presenting evidence.
Gilles Daudelin then rose and announced to the jury that he would present a defence on behalf of the accused. A person accused of a crime in Canada is not required to present evidence in a trial, but the defence attorney said he intends to call two witnesses.
The testimony of the first witness, retired Laval police investigator Serge Boulianne, ended almost as soon as it began. Boulianne, who testified as a prosecution witness last week, was shown an internal Laval police document, dated June 4, 1996, and was asked if he sent it to Marc Demers, his superior in the police force at the time (as Gilles Daudelin mentioned in passing before the jury, Demers is the mayor of Laval). Shortly after Boulianne confirmed that he sent the internal document to his boss, Bruno Lari- vière, another prosecutor in the case, made an objection. Because of the objection, Quebec Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque ended up excusing the jury for the day “because there are things to be discussed” and asked them to return Thursday morning. Larivière’s objection was discussed without the jury present and, because of this, the reasons behind it cannot be reported on.
Éric Daudelin wore a suit to court for the first time since his trial began. Gilles Daudelin mentioned the suit while he cross-examined Claude, the undercover agent who interacted with the accused the most during the sting operation. Claude posed as a Montreal businessman who dabbled in legitimate and illegal transactions. While testifying earlier in the trial, Claude mentioned having purchased a suit — along with a dress shirt, shoes and belt — for Éric Daudelin, at a Moore’s menswear store, when he brought the accused to Moncton, N.B. It was part of a “scenario” the police were putting Daudelin through to convince him he was becoming part of a criminal gang. While in Moncton, Claude pretended to be dealing in counterfeit poker chips that could be used at a casino in that city. He said that Daudelin, who was unemployed at that point, appeared to be very appreciative of the new duds.
“He looked me in the eyes, thanked me and shook my hand,” Claude said while testifying on Monday. He said the suit was pur- chased because the police wanted Daudelin to believe he was rising quickly in a criminal organization that was sophisticated and moved in circles where deals worth tens of thousands of dollars were made.
Gilles Daudelin asked Claude if he recognized the suit his client was wearing on Wednesday, but the undercover agent testified he couldn’t say with certainty whether it was the one he purchased.