The murderers of biker Sébastien Beauchamp tracked him for at least four days, using GPS beacons fixed under their victim’s vehicle, before shooting him down on the fifth day, December 20, 2018, in Montreal.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
At least that’s what a civilian expert from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) seemed to describe 10 days ago, in extremely precise testimony given at the trial of Giovanni Presta Jr., accused of the premeditated murder of biker.
Past investigations have shown that organized crime hitmen attach a GPS tag under their target’s vehicle to track them.
According to the evidence filed at trial to date, two GPS beacons were fixed under the black Jeep Cherokee rented by Sébastien Beauchamp; the first on November 28 and the second on December 17. One of them was found by the police, but not the other.
PHOTO PROVIDED
The victim, Sébastien Beauchamp, former member of the Montreal Rockers
Various SIM cards found at Presta and at the perpetrator of the murder, Frédérick Silva, were, at one time or another, inserted into these beacons and into telephones which were also used to track the motorcyclist.
Using cell phone registers, SIM cards, unique numbers linked to this equipment (IMEI) and communication tower registers provided by telephone companies, civil expert Mathieu Charest, strategic advisor to the SPVM, produced a PowerPoint-type document of 400 pages, containing maps and symbols.
The document literally redraws, simultaneously, the route of Beauchamp’s vehicle, the movements of a white Malibu — which is equipped with a GPS and which is probably used as a tracking vehicle — and the route of a person who is moving on foot or by metro, who has an administrator telephone and who requests the beacons fixed under the biker’s SUV.
The document also displays all incoming and outgoing messages that beacons send to each other and the administrator phones that query them.
A few hundred meters
Thus, we see that the white Malibu prowled around the vehicle rented by Beauchamp on December 6, 14, 17 and 18, before finding itself, around 2:30 p.m. on December 20, very close to the place and at the time when Sébastien Beauchamp was shot in the parking lot of a gas station, at the corner of boulevards Langelier and Robert, in the borough of Saint-Léonard.
During these days, simultaneously with the movements of the white Chevrolet Malibu, there are exchanges of information between an administrator telephone, a first beacon and a second fixed under the biker’s SUV.
On December 6, at 4:50 p.m., Sébastien Beauchamp’s vehicle and the Chevrolet Malibu were very close to each other in the Montréal-Nord borough.
On December 14, at 3:21 p.m., the two vehicles were less than a kilometer away in the area of rue Jarry and rue de Chamilly, in the borough of Saint-Léonard. This situation resembles that which will arise during the murder, six days later.
IMAGE FILED IN COURT
Between 3 p.m. and 3:21 p.m. on December 14, 2018, the white Malibu (green) and the individual holding the administrator phone (orange) who was interrogating the GPS beacon (blue) were very close to Sébastien Beauchamp’s vehicle (blue).
On December 17, around 10:25 p.m., a communication tower indicated that the administrator telephone which controlled the first beacon fixed under Beauchamp’s vehicle was at the same place as the motorcyclist’s vehicle at the corner of Sherbrooke and Berri streets, in the Centre-Sud district of Montreal.
In the seconds that follow, the telephone administrator interrogates a second GPS beacon several times, suggesting that it has just been stuck under the victim’s vehicle.
IMAGE FILED IN COURT
Beginning at 10:25 p.m. on the evening of December 17, 2018, the holder of the administrator telephone repeatedly interrogated a new GPS beacon (grey) which had presumably just been fixed under Sébastien Beauchamp’s vehicle.
The analyzes also show that on December 20, from 2:53 p.m., shortly after Beauchamp’s murder, one of the individuals involved called a taxi company three times. During the first call, he gave the address of 71 Duke Street in Montreal as his destination, before changing his mind.
Each time, the taxi will show up at the place where it was to pick up the customer without the latter being there.
The same day, still after the biker’s murder, the Chevrolet Malibu stopped at two car washes in Terrebonne before taking shelter in a Carex warehouse.
By regularly changing the SIM cards and introducing them, alternately, into different GPS beacons and various cell phones, the murderers of Sébastien Beauchamp obviously wanted to mix the cards with the technology. But they were eventually caught by her.
The trial resumes Monday with the cross-examination of civilian witness Mathieu Charest.
Subsequently, M.e Antoine Piché, of the prosecution, and Me Dominique Shoofey, of the defence, should begin their pleadings.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 287-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.