Police struggle to identify latest homicide victim

A man with a long record of drugrelated offences made his first court appearance on Friday in a murder case in which the police have yet to positively identify the victim.

The charge sheet filed against Sébastien Carrara, 42, accusing him of second-degree murder, is unusual in that he is accused of killing someone who has yet to be identified.

The victim, believed to be a man in his 40s, was stabbed near the intersection of Berri St. and Viger Ave. around 7 a.m. on Thursday. By the time police arrived, the person who stabbed the victim had fled. The victim was taken to a hospital, but was declared dead shortly after he arrived.

Carrara made a brief appearance before a judge at the Montreal courthouse Friday afternoon and was ordered to remain detained until his case returns to court on Oct. 25.

The address listed on his charge sheet is a centre in the Mercier— Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough that treats young drug addicts and alcoholics.

At the time of his arrest, Carrara was a wanted man. A warrant for his arrest was issued last month from a courthouse in Sorel, where he faces charges of credit card fraud.

He was also on probation as part of a sentence Carrara received last year in a different credit card fraud case. Besides being sentenced to three years of probation on June 29, 2017, he was ordered to pay back nearly $4,000 as restitution and to carry out 100 hours of community work.

Between 2009 and 2015, Carrara was convicted of drug trafficking related offences in three different cases in which he ended up with sentences that involved jail time.