Man convicted of second homicide in 7 months
A man from a small town in Ontario entered a guilty plea to manslaughter at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday, making it the second time in less than seven months that Tevon Squire has been convicted of a homicide in Canada. According to court records, Squire, a 23-year-old resident of Lindsay, Ont., 130 kilometres northeast of Toronto, entered his plea before Superior Court Justice Marc David. Squire was originally charged with second-degree murder in the death of Nathanael Reid, a 25-year-old LaSalle resident who was struck with a sharp object on Sept. 24, 2015, during an altercation near Dollard Ave. and John F. Kennedy St. While Squire managed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, the plea was entered under a section of the Criminal Code that carries the possibility of a maximum life sentence. Details of what Squire admitted to were not available during the weekend. The day before he killed the victim in LaSalle, Squire, who has resided in Châteauguay in the past, appeared at the Montreal courthouse to plead guilty to possessing drugs and a weapon for a dangerous purpose. The sentence he received that same day included 12 months of probation. The guilty plea to the manslaughter charge on Thursday put an end to a jury trial that was scheduled to begin later this year. Sentencing is scheduled to begin in April. On Aug. 1, 2015, less than two months before he killed Reid, Squire was in Vaughan, Ont., where he killed Fernando Acosta, a 38-year-old father of one who suffered from mental health problems. According to the Vaughan Citizen newspaper, Acosta’s body was discovered in a ditch. The victim had been stabbed three times in the back and once in the chest. During his trial in Ontario, Squire testified that it was Acosta who was carrying the knife that was ultimately used to kill him when a fight broke out between the men. Squire was originally charged with second-degree murder in Acosta’s death as well but, on July 9, a jury opted to convict him of manslaughter instead. Squire was sentenced to time served (1,072 days) for having killed Acosta. He has been detained in the Montreal case since his arrest in August 2016.