The jury found Ali Ngarukiye guilty of the second-degree murder of a fellow inmate. An extremely brutal crime motivated by a clothing dispute. Even though the killer said the victim was the “Devil” or a “Djinn,” the jury rejected his defense of mental disorder.
The jurors delivered their verdict Monday afternoon, after four days of deliberations, at the Montreal courthouse.
The jury did not know it, but Ali Ngarukiye had been convicted by another jury last December of attempting to kill Montreal police officer Sanjay Vig, a case infamous as the “Camara affair.” Radicalized in Ontario, Ngarukiye wanted to kill police officers and fight in an “Islamic war.” However, evidence of terrorism was excluded from the trial.
While he was detained at Rivière-des-Prairies prison awaiting his trial for attempted murder, Ali Ngarukiye beat André Lapierre to death in their cell on the night of June 16 to 17, 2021. The injuries of the The 57-year-old man’s injuries were so severe that they resembled those of a pedestrian run over by a car. The experienced pathologist had never seen anything like this.
Another disturbing element: Ali Ngarukiye wrote a sentence in Bic pencil on Lapierre’s thigh. “Thay shall not create an image of a living thing [Vous ne pouvez pas créer une image d’une chose vivante] », We could read. On the other thigh, the deceased displayed a tattoo of a naked woman. After the murder, Ali Ngarukiye repeated to correctional officers that Lapierre was the “Devil.”
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
It was with this pencil that Ali Ngarukiye wrote on the victim’s body.
Presumably, it was a trivial matter of clothing that pushed Ngarukiye to commit the irreparable. André Lapierre blamed his cellmate for stealing his clothes and putting them in the toilet. In the days before his death, André Lapierre confided to his best friend his concerns about sharing a room with Ngarukiye.
Ali Ngarukiye’s mental state at the time of the murder was the only issue at issue in the trial, since the parties admitted that he was the perpetrator of the crime. The Crown argued that he had the appropriate state of mind to be found guilty of murder and that he was not in an episode of schizophrenia at the time of the facts.
According to the defense, Ali Ngarukiye was not criminally responsible for the murder due to his mental disorders. Due to his religious delusions and his delusions of persecution, the accused was in a psychotic state which made him believe that he had to defend himself from the victim, pleaded Me Sharon Sandiford.
No fewer than five psychiatrists testified at the trial, including some for the defense. To experts, Ali Ngarukiye compared André Lapierre to “Satan”. He portrayed him as a man who defied God and did not respect him. Even that Lapierre was a “Djinn” who had pursued him since his childhood, according to the killer.
Despite the disturbing comments made by the accused, the Crown’s experts believed that Ali Ngarukiye did not suffer from a mental disorder preventing him from distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the crime. This is the defense, led by Me Sharon Sandiford, who had the burden of proving it.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Me Sharon Sandiford, lawyer for Ngarukiye
To render this verdict of second degree murder, the jury therefore excluded the defense’s evidence of mental health, in addition to being convinced beyond a reasonable doubt by the Crown that Ngarukiye had the intention to kill André Lapierre or to cause him injuries, knowing that they would be fatal.
Me Louis Bouthillier and Me Jean-François Roy represented the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions. Observations on the sentence are scheduled for next June. He will automatically be sentenced to life in prison. Judge Myriam Lachance will have to determine the period of ineligibility for parole.
On the other hand, Ali Ngarukiye is still waiting to receive his sentence for the attempted murder of police officer Sanjay Vig. He also faces life imprisonment. In this case, Ngarukiye attacked the Montreal police officer from behind while he was giving a ticket to a motorist. The latter, Mamadi Camara, was wrongly arrested, then exonerated.