Bail decision expected Friday on double manslaughter charges

Laval resident accused in shootings in what police believed to be a ‘drug burn’

A 21-year-old Laval resident will find out on Friday whether he will be granted bail in a case in which he faces two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of two men who were shot just before Christmas in St-Léonard.

Fodil-Abderhamane Lakehal is the only person officially charged so far in the deaths of Davis Arbour, 38, and Marc Hilary “Ocean” Dasilma, 41 — two men who were on the opposite ends of what the Montreal police believe was a “drug burn,” a street term for the robbery of a drug dealer.

Late in the morning of Dec. 24, one woman and three men, including Lakehal and Dasilma (Lakehal’s brother-in-law), were recorded on a surveillance camera as they entered an apartment building on Jean-Talon Street East, where Arbour lived. Minutes later, Arbour and Dasilma were both shot and investigators have evidence the shooting was the result of an attempt to rob Arbour of either cash or drugs.

According to evidence presented at Lakehal’s bail hearing, when police officers arrived, it was evident someone had throughly searched Arbour’s spacious 10th-floor apartment but had failed to find the more than $19,000 in cash, a kilogram of cocaine, 6,000 speed pills, 1,300 Cialis pills and other drugs. Arbour, a man with ties to the Hells Angels, had apparently stashed his drugs and cash inside a filing cabinet that the would-be robber or robbers ignored during a search.

Included among evidence gathered by investigators is a statement from Arbour’s girlfriend, who hid inside an armoire during the attempted robbery. She said that Arbour used drugs often and that when he got high he liked to show off his cash and drugs.

She also told investigators that two weeks before the shooting, Arbour hired prostitutes and got into an argument with their pimp, or pimps. Police believe that might have been the moment when organized crime figures learned that Arbour had cash and large quantities of drugs inside his apartment.

In her statement, Arbour’s girlfriend said she heard someone yell to Arbour that he knew what they were looking for before Dasilma, a street gang leader, began searching the apartment. Police also believe Arbour grabbed Dasilma at one point in his search and that Gabriel (Solo) Jasmin, 34, a man with a lengthy criminal record, shot both of them as they struggled, killing Dasilma by accident. During the bail hearing, prosecutor Sarah Sylvain Laporte said that homicide charges will soon be filed against Jasmin, who is detained in an unrelated case.

While police have little evidence that Lakehal, who admitted he was present when both men were killed, was involved in the actual shooting, Laporte argued before Quebec Court Judge Flavia Longo on Tuesday that he should remain detained because the goal of his trip to the apartment was to carry out an armed robbery. Laporte said Lakehal should have had reason to suspect that violence could have broken out.

The prosecutor also argued that Lakehal poses a potential flight risk because he has dual citizenship in Canada and Algeria, a country he travelled to and spent several weeks in last year.

Defence lawyer Richard Tawil argued that a member of the public, well-informed in the facts of the case, would not lose faith in the justice system if Lakehal were granted bail while he remains charged.

“The best evidence (that he isn’t a flight risk) is that he didn’t flee before (he was arrested two months after the shooting),” Tawil said while noting there were signs in January that the Montreal police knew who had entered the apartment building. Lakehal was first arrested in the case late in February.

Police believe Arbour grabbed Dasilma at one point in his search and that Gabriel (Solo) Jasmin shot both of them as they struggled.