After four days of deliberations, the jurors at Carl Girouard’s trial finally rejected the request for a verdict of not responsible on account of mental disorder.
He is convicted of two first degree murders and five attempted murders.
The jury is now rendering its judgment.
The members of the jury had been isolated since Monday noon to deliver their verdict. They only called the judge once, Monday afternoon, to ask him for information on the criteria linked to certain types of conviction.
During the trial, the defendant’s lawyer, Pierre Gagnon, pleaded that he suffered from schizophrenia as well as a form of mild autism and that he was delirious at the time of the attack.
Crown prosecutor François Godin, meanwhile, argued that the 26-year-old did not have a serious diagnosis of mental illness, but rather suffered from a narcissistic disorder that did not prevent him from being fully aware of his actions.
On the evening of October 31, 2020, Carl Girouard went to Old Quebec with a saber and in a few minutes attacked seven strangers he met on his way. Two people died – François Duchesne and Suzanne Clermont – and five others were injured, some seriously.
More details will follow…
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