Marc-André Grenon discovered responsible of 2000 homicide of CEGEP scholar

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SAGUENAY — A Quebec Superior Courtroom decide on Tuesday described Marc-André Grenon as a morally and sexually wicked killer as he sentenced him to life in jail for the first-degree homicide of CEGEP scholar Guylaine Potvin in 2000.

Justice François Huot addressed Grenon moments after a jury convicted him on the courthouse in Saguenay.

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“I wish to make this clear: I solely really feel disgust and contempt for the actions you took on April 28, 2000,” Huot advised Grenon, who declined the decide’s invitation to deal with the sufferer’s mother and father, current within the courtroom.

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“You might be a person, as I discussed a couple of moments in the past, who is totally devoid of morality. You might be sexually wicked and a assassin.”

Grenon, who was arrested in 2022 after DNA on his discarded ingesting straws matched proof from the crime scene, was additionally discovered responsible of sexually assaulting the 19-year-old Potvin.

The 12-person jury reached its resolution lower than three hours after starting deliberations. Spectators within the packed courtroom may very well be seen hugging and wiping away tears after the verdicts had been learn.

Police had honed in on the suspect greater than 22 years after the crime when a mission monitoring Y chromosomes — that are handed down from father to son — steered the DNA left by the killer was linked to the final identify Grenon.

Huot didn’t maintain again as he sentenced Grenon, describing the convicted killer as a coward who attacked a susceptible sufferer whereas she was asleep along with her teddy bear, after which went on to get pleasure from 22 years of undeserved liberty earlier than his arrest.

“Inform me, accused, whilst you had been abusing Guylaine, did you’re feeling sturdy? Did you’re feeling brave? Did you’re feeling like a person, an actual one?” he requested. “What an illustration of pressure. What an illustration of braveness. It’s completely disgusting.”

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Exterior the courtroom, members of Potvin’s household mentioned they hoped she could be remembered for the qualities she embodied in life, slightly than the style of her demise.

“The acute violence she was a sufferer of was the other of what she incarnated: gentleness, calm, goodness and peace,” mentioned her mom, Jeannine Caouette.

The household mentioned it was beginning a basis to honour Potvin, who had been learning particular schooling and had been fascinated with humanitarian efforts.

Throughout the trial, Grenon’s attorneys admitted he killed {the teenager} with a belt that was discovered subsequent to her physique however argued her demise was a housebreaking gone mistaken. Crown prosecutor Pierre-Alexandre Bernard maintained Grenon, 49, strangled Potvin throughout a sexually motivated assault that started after he noticed her asleep in her mattress — making her demise a first-degree homicide.

Potvin, 19, lived with two feminine roommates, additionally college students, who weren’t dwelling when the killing occurred inside their Panet St. residence in Jonquière, now a borough of Saguenay.

A pathologist testified that {the teenager} had died of strangulation, with accidents that included blunt trauma to her head and shoulder, a chew mark on her left breast, and accidents to her genital space.

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Whereas male DNA was found on the crime scene, the trial heard there was no match within the police database and no witnesses to the crime.

Police arrested Grenon in 2022 after following him to a film theatre and accumulating his discarded ingesting straws. DNA on the straws was discovered to match the DNA from the crime scene, together with underneath Potvin’s fingernails, on a T-shirt she was carrying and on a field of condoms discovered on the scene. That match was confirmed when investigators obtained a warrant for a second DNA check after Grenon’s arrest.

The defence argued Grenon had killed Potvin in a wrestle after breaking into the house to commit theft, and that any sexual contact occurred after the sufferer had died. Defence lawyer Karine Poliquin steered a second-degree homicide conviction. Grenon didn’t testify throughout the trial, and his lawyer didn’t name another witnesses.

The Prison Code defines first-degree homicide as “deliberate and deliberate,” however a homicide can be first-degree if it happens in the midst of a sexual assault. First-degree and second-degree homicide include computerized life sentences, however with first-degree homicide there is no such thing as a chance of parole for 25 years. With second-degree homicide, parole eligibility may be set at as little as 10 years.

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Throughout his last directions to the jury, Huot mentioned that, opposite to what the defence argued, it was not essential to show the sexual assault occurred earlier than the demise, however solely that an assault or tried assault occurred in the identical sequence of occasions because the killing.

The jury didn’t hear that Grenon, of Granby, is additionally charged with tried homicide and sexual assault in reference to a case in Quebec Metropolis simply months after Potvin’s killing.

Police mentioned their investigation into Potvin’s homicide turned up similarities with the Quebec Metropolis case from July 2000, during which a feminine scholar, dwelling alone, was assaulted and left for useless however survived the assault.

Grenon’s arrest was the primary made by the provincial police’s chilly case squad because it was beefed up with extra assets in 2018.

Huot, in conclusion, congratulated the investigators who tracked down the suspect, including that different assailants “will sleep much less effectively tonight after listening to this information.”

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