‘No justice’ for woman killed by partner, family says
Sentence leaves three years to serve for man who killed partner in drug frenzy
Gail Fawcett’s family could barely contain their emotion Tuesday as they learned the man who killed her will serve only three more years for the crime.
Gino Langevin, 48, was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter by Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny, but was granted credit for nearly five years he has spent in pretrial custody since his arrest on July 21, 2015.
On that day, Langevin was high on cocaine when he stabbed Fawcett, his partner of nine years, after chasing her down their Carlington street, brandishing a kitchen knife.
She had called 911 minutes earlier, fearful of his erratic behaviour.
“Please hurry,” she whispered to the dispatcher.
When paramedic Derek Marriner arrived on the scene, Langevin tried to smash his car window with the knife as Marriner pleaded with Fawcett to run.
Langevin then turned his attention to Fawcett. He chased her down and stabbed her in the chest in broad daylight on Anna Street. He then leaned down over her lifeless body and kissed her.
Langevin claimed he had no recollection of killing Fawcett, and a psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Hospital diagnosed Langevin as suffering a “cocaine-induced psychotic episode.”
He therefore lacked the mental state required to form intent to murder, defence lawyer Michael Smith argued, and Langevin pleaded down from the original murder charge to manslaughter.
Ratushny said she agreed that the diagnosis reduced the charge to manslaughter, while acknowledging the Fawcett family’s “shock, sorrow, heartsickness and, for some, understandable anger ... I regard this sentence as being completely inadequate in compensating for her life, which was so violently taken,” the judge said.
Outside court, Fawcett’s grieving family members embraced as they reflected bitterly on the sentence.
“There is no justice here, not at all,” said Fawcett’s sister, Sheila Fawcett-Yendall. “I was expecting this, and in three years he’s basically walking from it.”
Fawcett’s family, who are Indigenous, said they were offended when Langevin’s defence team requested a Gladue report, which is traditionally employed in court cases to weigh societal factors for an offender of Indigenous heritage.
Fawcett-Yendall said they never knew Langevin to have any claim to Indigenous heritage before he was charged.
Ratushny said she accepted Langevin’s claim to Métis status, but said he faced no hardships, experienced no alcoholism or violence — factors usually considered by Gladue — and had a “normal upbringing” near Maniwaki. The sentencing decision therefore gave “little weight” to the Gladue report.
The judge said Langevin expressed genuine remorse in a tearful apology to Fawcett’s family from the prisoner’s box.
But during that apology, Langevin referred to the killing as “an accident,” and has claimed the killing was spurred by his withdrawal from cocaine, rather than his addiction to it. Ratushny said that lack of insight makes him a risk to reoffend, and said any sentence must include a focus on addiction counselling.
She said the tragedy was further compounded by the fact that Gail Fawcett, who comes from a family that strictly forbids the use of drugs, was trying to help Langevin “go straight and clean” when she was killed.
“She died as she continued to try,” Ratushny said.
The Crown had asked for a 12year sentence, reflecting the aggravating circumstances of the case that placed it at “near murder.”
The defence urged a sentence that would have freed Langevin, essentially with time already served. The judge’s decision met both arguments halfway.
“He can’t even admit to what he’s done yet, he calls it an accident. We call it murder,” said Fawcett-Yendall.
“There’s never going to be justice in this world, there’s no sentence that’s high enough. But when he meets his creator, that’s when justice is going to be served, and that’s the faith I’ve had all through this process.”
Langevin was ordered to submit a sample for a national DNA databank and handed a lifetime firearms prohibition. He was also ordered not to communicate with the victim’s family while serving his sentence or out on parole.