Lachine man who killed girlfriend’s son with a spear to be sentenced next week
Christine Brooks lost more than her son three years ago when her ex-boyfriend, in a drunken rage, killed him with a spear in Lachine.
A short letter full of painful details, written by Brooks, was read into the record at the Montreal courthouse on Friday while Superior Court Justice Françcois Dadour heard sentencing arguments in the homicide case against Philippe Gloutney, 44, a man who stabbed Brooks and killed her 38-year-old son Lee-Christopher Larocque on Nov. 6, 2015.
Gloutney initially was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder — but with his jury trial days from starting, he was able to plead guilty last month to the reduced charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault.
Larocque was killed on Brooks’s birthday. Hours before the tragedy occurred, she, Gloutney and Larocque began drinking vodka and beer together before she and Gloutney headed off, at around 6 p.m., to her sister’s house for a party. When they returned shortly after 11 p.m., Gloutney was very intoxicated. He and Larocque argued and the dispute ended with Gloutney stabbing the 38-yearold several times with a spear he had made. He also stabbed Brooks through her right arm.
“The day that my son was killed my life was changed forever,” Brooks wrote in the letter. She described her current life as one she now lives in fear of other men and in social isolation.
“My family blames me for the death of my son,” Brooks wrote. She added that her mother doesn’t speak to her any more. Like Gloutney, Larocque had a serious problem with alcohol. Gloutney and Brooks previously were in an amorous relationship, but had been merely living together for four years when Larocque was killed. He had moved in with his mother and Gloutney after losing his apartment and the situation, coupled with drinking, placed a strain on the relationship between the two men.
“The major thing now is the why. Why did you kill my son instead of leaving?” Brooks wrote. “I feel broken inside and I am tired of the pain.”
Dadour heard testimony from two of Larocque’s brothers, including one who said he blamed himself for what happened because Larocque had told him weeks before he was killed that living in the same apartment with Gloutney was not going well.
Gloutney also testified on Friday and provided a long list of all the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings he has attended while detained.
“You did nothing wrong,” Gloutney said as he read aloud from a letter intended for Brooks even though she was not present in court. “I love you and always will. I’m sorry for all the pain.”
Gloutney also addressed Laroque’s relatives who were present in the courtroom and said: “I don’t expect you will ever forgive me.”
“Never will,” one of Larocque’s brothers replied quickly.
Prosecutor Jasmine Guillaume asked that Gloutney receive an overall prison term of 15 years. She asked that the homicide and Brooks’s stabbing be treated as separate events even though judges in Canada traditionally consider similar cases as one event, where the offender should be sentenced once. Guillaume asked that Gloutney be sentenced to 12 years for killing Larocque and another three years to be served consecutively for the assault on Brooks.
Defence lawyer Jean-Louis Poulard argued that the homicide cases Guillaume cited as precedents to support her argument did not compare to one where a heavily intoxicated person ends up stabbing two people in a fit of rage.
“We don’t know what happened that night,” Poulard said in reference to how Gloutney remembers little of what provoked the argument with Larocque. Poulard also described Gloutney as “a man who is sincerely remorseful,” while recommending an overall sentence of nine years.
Dadour is scheduled to make his decision next Friday.