Shooting was planned: prosecutor
Two men killed in Flawnego clothing boutique in 2010
A shooting in an Old Montreal clothing boutique that left two people dead was planned and deliberate and is a classic whodunit case, the crown prosecutor told the jury Monday at the firstdegree murder trial of three men.
“The defence argued we charged the wrong people. They said, ‘Hey, you got the wrong guys,’ ” Louis Bouthillier said in his closing arguments in Quebec Superior Court. “We obviously think the contrary.”
He said he would show, through a summary of the evidence heard over nearly seven months, that the three men in the prisoner box — Carey Isaac Regis, 45, Terrell Lloyd Smith, 31, and Kyle Gabriel, 29 — worked together to carry out the brazen attack in broad daylight on March 18, 2010. Then, wanting to “get away with murder,” they planned their escape, Bouthillier said.
No one was going to survive this attack, including Jean Gaston, who happened to be in the store doing some repairs, the prosecutor said.
“The electrician lay there, defenceless, face down, not wanting to be seen or heard,” he said. “A shooter approached him, and you know the rest. “Two bullets to the head.” The killers fired more than 60 rounds of ammunition inside the Flawnego boutique, shooting anyone who couldn’t hide or escape. Gaston and the second victim, Peter Christopoulos, died of multiple bullet wounds, Bouthillier reminded the jury. Two other men were wounded.
The Crown’s theory is that the three accused were out to get gang leader Ducarme (Kenny) Joseph, who escaped unharmed from the boutique belonging to his girlfriend. Gaston was Joseph’s uncle and worked in the boutique. Christopoulos worked as Joseph’s bodyguard.
One of the defence lawyers maintained in his closing arguments last week that police should have taken a DNA sample from Joseph, who left the bloody scene without giving police a statement, then returned seven hours later.
“The defence wants you to believe that Ducarme was the mastermind behind this attack,” Bouthillier went on. “Where’s the evidence of that?”
The killers left behind their outer layers of clothing on StJacques St. before fleeing, but none of it resembled what a video surveillance camera showed Joseph was wearing that day.
Joseph was a victim who called 911 and recounted in which direction the getaway car fled, Bouthillier said.
“If he’s part of it, why is he doing this?”
Bouthillier also highlighted evidence that showed the three accused all stopped using their cellphones within 48 hours after the shooting.
Regis made his last call on March 18 at 7:26 p.m. — sev- eral hours after the shooting. Gabriel’s cellphone was used for the last time the following day at 2:12 p.m., and Smith’s on March 20 at 10:37 a.m.
While there was just one call between Smith and Regis before the murder, there were 40 between them right after, Bouthillier told the jury.
At one point before the shooting, the cellphones were traced to 240 St-Jacques St., the boutique’s address, then traced to other locations before returning to the boutique around the time of the killing. Gabriel and Regis, the one who allegedly drove the getaway car, spoke six times in the span of less than an hour, Bouthillier said.
“If you want to commit murder, you might want to case the joint first to make sure the person is there,” he said.
Gabriel’s fingerprints were found on the Dodge Caravan, which had been rented from the West Island at 12:46 p.m. and was returned at 2:57 p.m. The shooting happened at 1:40 p.m. Many witnesses who had been on the busy street told police what they’d seen, including a bank investigator who had seen two black men getting into the Caravan. He gave police the licence number that led them to the rental agency before the vehicle was washed.
Closing arguments continue Tuesday.