Murder accused wanted witness ‘roughed up’

John Boulachanis was willing to pay $2,000 to have a key witness in his murder trial roughed up in an effort to prevent him from testifying, Boulachanis’s murder trial was told Monday.

The allegation came from a man who served time with Boulachanis while both were detained at the Rivière des Prairies Detention Centre two years ago.

The 43-year-old witness is the third person whose name cannot be published because of a publication ban imposed by Superior Court Justice Michael Stober, the presiding judge in the jury trial at the Gouin courthouse.

Boulachanis is on trial for the first-degree murder of Robert Tanguay, a 32-year-old man who was killed in August 1997 in Rigaud. Two men who were accomplices in the murder have already testified. Publication bans were imposed on their names as well.

The 43-year-old witness who took the stand on Monday testified that Boulachanis had plans to intimidate several witnesses who would be called to testify in the current trial.

The witness, who has been detained for the past five years and is awaiting a decision on his sentence for a series of six armed robberies, said he and Boulachanis were behind bars at Rivière des Prairies, in 2014, when Boulachanis learned the witness had a friend, named David Gauthier, who was willing to commit crimes on the outside.

The witness explained that while he was behind bars, he was introduced to an accountant who claimed he had discovered a loophole through which detainees could recover taxes they paid while behind bars. He said the accountant was somehow able to recover more than $4,000 for him but had failed to transfer it to him.

“I came up with the idea — it was a bad idea — but an idea, anyway. It was to (have David Gauthier) throw a rock through the window (of the accountant’s office),” the 43-yearold witness said. He added later that the accountant paid him after warning him more rocks would be tossed through his window.

The 43-year-old witness said that when he recounted this story to Boulachanis at Rivière des Prairies, he grew very interested, especially when he learned Gauthier lived near one of the accomplices in the murder.

“He asked, ‘Can David send messages to (the accomplice)?’ That it would help his case. So that witnesses wouldn’t show up or that they’d feel threatened,” the witness said. “He also asked me if it was possible to have someone roughed up.”

The 43-year-old testified that he eventually figured he could rip off Boulachanis because he’d have no way of confirming whether the accomplice had indeed been beaten up. He said he lied to Boulachanis and told him Gauthier had arranged to have a few guys help him beat up the accomplice as he was coming out of a brasserie.

“(Boulachanis) was extremely excited to hear that (Gauthier) had roughed up (the accomplice),” the 43-year-old man said, while adding that Boulachanis arranged to have the $2,000 transferred to Gauthier through Boulachanis’s girlfriend, Amanda Jones.

Boulachanis continued to believe his lie for several weeks, the witness said. He explained that Boulachanis was transferred to another detention centre shortly after the $2,000 exchanged hands and said that Boulachanis later used Jones to connect both men through a conference call between their detention centres.

However, the witness continued, Boulachanis still wanted another message to be sent to the accomplice. He said Boulachanis mentioned the possibility of having a Molotov cocktail thrown into the accomplice’s home and that Boulachanis was willing to pay $1,200 for the job. The witness said the plans involving the Molotov cocktail were never carried out.

Defence lawyer Marc Labelle began his cross-examination by asking the witness if he had been diagnosed as a psychopath in 2013. The witness replied that he had come very close to being rated as a psychopath on a standard scale used to test many convicted criminals.