Carl Therrien, 26, was found guilty of first-degree murder to the deaths of François Duchesne, 56, and Suzanne Clermont, 61, by a jury on 20 May. “You took the lives of two people and ruined the lives of many [more]”Quebec Supreme Court Justice Richard Grenier told Zirouar before handing down the sentence. Wearing a shaved head and an orange shirt, the young man sat motionless and looked at the floor as he listened to statements from the families of his victims. Speaking via video conference from Paris, Duchesne’s sister, Marie-Josée, gave an emotional account of how her life had changed since her brother was murdered. “Sadness overwhelms me whenever I think of him,” he testified. “Without him the world is not so beautiful.” Family members of François Duchesne, 56, and Suzanne Clermont, 61, wrote statements expressing their pain. (Radio Canada) Clermont’s sister-in-law, Marie-Claude Veilleux, who was present in the courtroom and who also attended Girouard’s trial every day, took a stand. “I ask you to listen to me, Mr. Zirouar,” she said with her back to him. He told him he hoped he would not cover his ears with his hands as he spoke, accusing him of doing so during the trial to “pretend to be mentally ill”. He said Clermont was a generous, affectionate and lovable person who enjoyed life and embodied the lifestyle that Jirouir aspired to but never succeeded. He said he was happy to go to prison for life and hoped to spend this time thinking about “all the evil” he had committed and doing some endoscopic work on himself. “You should stop blaming ‘Bad Carl’ for your actions,” he said. “You have to accept that you are ‘Bad Carl.’ Two of Zirouar’s victims were present at the hearing, but chose not to make statements about the impact of the victims. The sentence lasted a little less than an hour. A conviction for first-degree murder carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Neither the defense nor the Crown presented arguments to the judge. The Supreme Court of Canada was recently convicted called conditional stacking, saying it was unconstitutional to sentence someone to multiple consecutive periods of ineligibility, even if he killed more people. Zirouar shook his head and was silent when the judge asked him if he wanted to say something. Judge Grenier acknowledged that the young man had mental health problems and advised him to seek help while in custody.
The defense filed an appeal
Pierre Gagnon, Carl Girouard’s lawyer, filed an appeal Friday morning, just before his client’s conviction was heard. (Emilie Warren / CBC News) Girouard’s lawyer, Pierre Ganyon, filed an appeal against his client’s guilty verdict earlier Friday morning. “It simply came to our notice then [we] “He just went to appeal,” he said. One of the arguments for the appeal involves the judge not allowing the defense to question a Crown expert about his work in a previous case. Other reasons include the judge’s failure to tell jurors that they should not consider certain elements of the testimony of witnesses during the hearing.
