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Jury sequestered at trial of man accused in 2012 Quebec election night shooting

Aug 12, 2016 | 4:16 PM

MONTREAL — The fate of accused Quebec election-night shooter Richard Henry Bain is now in the hands of a jury.

Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer completed his charge late Friday and 12 jurors will begin their deliberations Saturday morning.

They will have to render verdicts on four charges — one of first-degree murder in the slaying of stagehand Denis Blanchette and three of attempted murder.

Cournoyer told jurors that central to the case is Bain’s mental condition at the time of the offences.

“This case primarily concerns the state of mind of Mr. Bain on Sept. 4, 2012,” he said.

The accused’s lawyer has said he was mentally ill the night of the shooting outside the Metropolis nightclub as premier-designate Pauline Marois was delivering a speech to the Parti Quebecois election rally.

But the Crown has argued Bain was of sound mind and that the shooting was premeditated and triggered by his anger at the PQ victory.

Cournoyer told the jurors if they find Bain not criminally responsible, that verdict must apply to all four charges and the accused will be sent to a mental health facility.

To reach that conclusion, the jury would have to decide Bain had been “more likely than not” suffering from a mental disorder that night, rendering him incapable of knowing his acts were wrong, he said.

If not, they will have to render verdicts on each charge — including first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter in Blanchette’s death. Acquittal is not an option on the first-degree murder charge.

One of the three counts of attempted murder relates to Blanchette’s fellow stagehand, Dave Courage, who was struck by the same bullet that killed Blanchette. The two other charges relate to provincial police officer Stephane Champagne and a dozen fellow stagehands who were nearby when the weapon was fired. 

Bain can be acquitted on the three charges of attempted murder, while the jurors will also have the option of considering aggravated assault instead of attempted murder in the charge involving Courage.

Cournoyer told the jurors they won’t have to rule on two arson-related counts.

Earlier in the day, prosecutor Dennis Galiatsatos wrapped up his final arguments, telling jurors he believes the Crown has established beyond a reasonable doubt that Bain is guilty.

Galiatsatos said the evidence suggests Bain was of sound mind the night of the shooting.

He invited jurors to carefully evaluate the credibility of Bain’s testimony in court and his comments to psychiatrists who also testified.

The accused has claimed he doesn’t remember what happened that night but Galiatsatos told the jury Bain’s “amnesia” was contradicted by witness accounts and handwritten notes he penned for a psychiatrist evaluating him in November 2012.

In the notes, he wrote that his plan was to kill as many separatists as possible and, had his weapon not jammed, would have kept shooting and killed Marois.

“He doesn’t remember but did put in writing exactly what he did and why — fine fine details by, I submit, someone who remembered quite well,” Galiatsatos said.

The defence said Thursday that all of Bain’s actions and words before, during and after the incident should be viewed in the context of mental illness.

Lawyer Alan Guttman asked jurors earlier this week to weigh the evidence with the following in mind: “Was this anger? Or was this a man who was mentally sick?”

Morgan Lowrie and Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press


©2016 The Canadian Press