More than six years after the death of Clémence Beaulieu-Patry, stabbed in front of customers in a Montreal supermarket, everything has to be redone. The Quebec Court of Appeal on Monday ordered a new trial for Randy Tshilumba due to the judge’s “inadequate” instructions.
“The Court can only find that the instructions communicated only orally to the jury were unduly long, unnecessarily complex, but above all manifestly contradictory and prejudicial to the position of the appellant,” ruled the highest court in the province.
Five years ago, Randy Tshilumba was found guilty by a jury of the first degree murder of 20-year-old Clémence Beaulieu-Patry. The young man had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. The jury had rejected his defense of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder and had accepted the Crown’s theory of premeditation.
In a Maxi supermarket in the Saint-Michel district, Randy Tshilumba had repeatedly stabbed Clémence Beaulieu-Patry, an ex-classmate he barely knew. He then hid all night in the toilets of a Tim Hortons. At trial, the defendant maintained that he believed at the time that the victim and her four best friends had been trying to kill him for months – which was not true. The defense had pleaded the “delirium” committed by a “sick brain”.
The Court of Appeal particularly criticized Superior Court judge Hélène Di Salvo for having made errors in her instructions to the jury at the end of the trial. These instructions should in principle “clarify and simplify” the task of the jury in view of their deliberations. However, those of the judge were too long and confusing for the jurors.
Moreover, Judge Di Salvo erred in telling the jury that the defendant’s behavior after the murder had no probative value in determining his guilt, except for one piece of evidence. This had the effect of “confusing the fundamental issue of the trial”, namely the taking into account of the mental disorders of the accused, according to the Court of Appeal.