Investigators from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) believe they have solved the violent death of a thirty-year-old from Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, savagely beaten with a baseball bat during a home invasion two days before Christmas.
Philippe Fournier-Brunelle, 39, Jason Mercier-McGlashan, 39, Guillaume Marois, 23, and Mathieu Marceau, 36, appeared Thursday morning at the Granby courthouse. The men from Granby, Alma and Saint-Dominique face charges of manslaughter.
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They were arrested on Wednesday by SQ crime against person investigators. Searches were also carried out in seven homes linked to the suspects. The large-scale operation mobilized more than 80 police officers and the expertise of the Tactical Intervention Group was necessary due to the level of risk considered significant.
Mobile still unclear
On December 23, around 6 a.m., victim Jeffrey Poulin received an impromptu visit from his attackers at his home on 2e North Rank. The 31-year-old man was beaten with a baseball bat, mainly to the head. When emergency services arrived, the suspects, wearing hoods, fled.
Jeffrey Poulin was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries six days later. The victim in this story was known to the police for records of mischief and drug possession. The motive for this sordid crime remains mysterious.
According to those close to Jeffrey Poulin, he had suffered greatly since the tragic death of his younger brother in a car accident in 2018. He had suffered severe depression, which led him to make bad life choices.
“But he was a calm young man who had no aggression in him,” laments his aunt Kim Pomerleau, to whom he was very close.
Much like the rest of the family, the woman breathed a sigh of relief when she was informed that arrests had been made in the case Wednesday.
“We know that it’s far from over and that it’s going to be long, but it’s as if for the first time, we’re experiencing a bit of success in this. If there is a little justice that comes out of that, that will be it.”
Other break-ins
The four accused are known to the police.
Philippe Fournier-Brunelle and Jason Mercier-McGlashan, two long-time friends, have extensive criminal records behind them. They were notably accused of numerous break-ins, armed assaults, drug possession, fraud and theft.
Fournier-Brunelle had also been accused in connection with a violent break-in that occurred in February 2019, where he had attacked an ordinary 76-year-old man at his home, the newspaper reported at the time. Granby Express. He was arrested several months later because of his DNA found at the scene.