Murder, heroin, love triangles and corruption
What you missed in Montreal’s criminal court last week
Gruesome double murder case nearing conclusion
Lawyers for the prosecution and the defense rested their cases last week in the trial of Altamond Little.
Little is on trial for the murder of his ex-girlfriend of 10 years Marjorie Dammier and her new boyfriend Maxime Calado. Dammier and Calado were murdered at Dammier’s apartment in LaSalle on Oct 8 2013.
Dammier was shot in the head at close range with a sawed-off shotgun. Calado was stabbed multiple times. Little was arrested several days after the murders with blood from both victims on his clothes.
The crown alleges that Little was still in love with Dammier who was maintaining some sort of relationship with him, and couldn’t stand to see her in a relationship with Calado.
On the stand, Little argued that it was Calado who shot Dammier. Little said he stabbed Calado in retaliation.
Neighbors testified that they heard Little shouting on the night of Oct 9: “She’s my wife, I can do what I want with her,” before a gunshot rang out.
A verdict is expected in the case sometime later this week.
Heroin is one hell of a drug
The court heard from key witnesses last week in the trial of Louis Roody, who is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Jaime Bustillo on Feb 9 2014.
Roody allegedly stabbed Bustillo behind St-Laurent metro station over a $40 debt.
On Monday the court heard audio testimony recorded at a preliminary inquiry from Jessica Kyle, Roody’s girlfriend at the time of the murder. She and Roody had been living in various hotels up until the time of Bustillo’s death.
Kyle said that Roody came home on the night of Feb 9 2014 with a long black knife, told her that he had stabbed Bustillo behind the St-Laurent metro station, and that Bustillo would survive. He didn’t.
Kyle’s voice sounded shaky and low coming through the court’s sound system. She said she was going through heroin withdrawal at the time of her testimony.
“If I don’t get my drugs within six to eight hours I become non-functional,” she told the preliminary inquiry.
Kyle, a native of New-Brunswick, came to Montreal six months before Bustillo’s murder because “the drugs were cheaper.”
She died in 2016 at the age of 26. Her recorded audio testimony is a key piece of the prosecution’s case.
The case is expected to wrap up next week.
A jury divided
A mistrial was declared in the case of Jonathan Mahautiere.
Mahautiere was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his 17-year-old girlfriend Gabrielle Dufresne-Élie. Mahautiere allegedly strangled Dufresne-Élie after she broke up with him at a motel on Sherbrooke St. in Montreal-West on June 7 2014.
He said that he blacked out and doesn’t remember killing her.
The jury was unable to come to a consensus over whether or not Mahautiere should be convicted of second degree murder, which carries a life sentence, or manslaughter which could result up to 14 years in prison, but carries no minimum sentence.
Mahautiere’s lawyers had argued that since he didn’t mean to kill Dufresne-Élie, the jury should only consider a manslaughter charge.
Some members of the jury seemed upset as the judge read their note for a mistrial.
Mahautiere was 18 at the time of the killing.
Ex-Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay testifies
Former Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay took the stand last week in Frank Zampino’s corruption trial.
Zampino is facing charges of fraud, conspiracy, and breach of trust. He was arrested along with nine others in the spring of 2013.
Zampino was chairman of the executive committee of the city of Montreal from 2002 to 2008, leaving him in charge of the city’s finances and was Tremblay’s campaign manager for the 2005 municipal elections.
Tremblay said that during his tenure as mayor he considered Zampino an exceptional and trustworthy councilor.
In 2013, it was revealed at the Charbonneau Commission that construction magnate Paolo Catania had worked out a deal with Zampino that allowed him to purchase a large plot of land in Montreal’s east end, valued at about $30 million, from the Société d’habitation de Montréal for less than $5 million.
Tremblay stepped down as mayor in Nov. 2012, denying any knowledge of corruption in his administration.
First degree is a weekly report by Matthew Lapierre about the goings-on in Montreal streets and courtrooms. Follow The Pitchwriter to receive this column in your inbox.
