Nathaniel Albert pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday at the Laval courthouse to killing his wife, Françoise Côté, in 2020. According to the victim’s son, her death was the culmination of more than 20 years of abuse.
Posted at 1:25 p.m.
Mr Albert, 60, was originally charged with second-degree murder, but the parties instead agreed to a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Françoise Côté, 74, was found dead at her Laval apartment on December 4, 2020. It was Mr. Albert himself who called emergency services, saying that Ms.me Côté was unconscious after taking drugs.
In fact, it was blunt force trauma that killed her. His body bore numerous injuries including cuts, burns and broken ribs. Some wounds showed signs of healing, indicating that they spanned a long period before his death.
The Crown and the defense submitted a joint recommendation of 10.5 years imprisonment. Judge François Dadour of the Superior Court, however, neither approved nor rejected it. He asked the parties to submit more arguments in support of this recommendation at another day of hearings, scheduled for October 4.
At the time of the events, Mr. Albert had no right to be at the victim’s apartment. He was facing assault charges for acts committed against Mr.me Côté in early January 2020, including punching him in the head. The police also intervened in March 2020 at the apartment of Mme Côté for an incident of domestic violence.
Nathaniel Albert and Françoise Côté had been married since 1997 and according to André Lambert, the victim’s son, the violence began in 1998. “My mother was the kind of person who always had a smile, a big heart, full of determination and ‘enthusiasm,’ he said in moving court testimony. “All of that faded away when she met Nathaniel Albert. »
In an interview, Mr. Lambert said he disagreed with the common suggestion of 10 and a half years in prison, assuring “that he deserves much more than that”. “I hope the sentence he receives will be appropriate for the kind of stalker and predator he is,” he said during his testimony.