In a judgment rendered on Friday, the Quebec Court of Appeal increased the sentence of Jérémie McLauchlin-Thibeault, convicted of manslaughter last year, from 10 to 15 years in prison.
Posted at 8:33 p.m.
Mr. McLauchlin-Thibeault repeatedly hit Vickie Belle-Isle in the head with a roll of 18-pound industrial plastic bags in June 2019. The victim, a neighbor of his attacker in Pointe-aux-Trembles, died of his injuries. The motive remains unknown.
Superior Court Judge Daniel Royer sentenced Mr. McLauchlin-Thibeault to 10 years in prison a year ago, which is at the low end of the range for this type of crime. The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) appealed the sentence.
The province’s highest court allowed the appeal, finding that the trial judge made several “palpable and overriding” errors in assessing the aggravating factors of the case.
“That the respondent did not intend to kill the victim in no way diminishes his moral responsibility,” underlines Judge François Doyon, joined by his colleagues Judges Mark Schrager and Patrick Healy.
The absence of a fracture noted by Judge Royer, for example, is attributable to the nature of the weapon and “does not alter the brutality of the attack”. The use of a weapon is moreover an aggravating factor to which more weight should be given than what the trial judge decided.
The consequences of the crime for the victim’s family, which Judge Royer dismissed out of hand when deciding the sentence, may in fact constitute an aggravating factor, further notes the Court of Appeal.
“Contrary to what the judge held, the respondent’s moral culpability is at a very high level,” wrote Judge Doyon. He relies in particular on “the relentlessness on an unconscious victim, the use of a weapon and the disturbing circumstances of the attack”, which he describes as being “gratuitous, totally unjustified”.
Finally, if he considered the numerous criminal records of the killer, “I do not see that the judge gave them any weight” considering the relatively lenient sentence imposed, notes the Court of Appeal. Mr. McLauchlin-Thibeault accumulated twenty breaches of recognizance or probation, two break and enters, six threatening offenses, an assault with a weapon and nine assaults on seven separate events before killing his neighbor.
The court therefore agreed to the DPCP’s request, which suggested 15 years’ imprisonment.