A murderer who spent 51 months on the run – and whom court documents cite as a suspect in a fire in Old Montreal that caused the deaths of seven people – pleaded guilty Thursday to escaping from a Laval penitentiary and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for this. A sentence which is cumulative with the life sentence he is already serving for second degree murder.
Ranked among the most wanted criminals in Quebec, Denis Bégin, nicknamed the “Halloween Killer”, was arrested in May 2023.
Court documents name Bégin as a suspect in the fire that killed seven people in a heritage building in Old Montreal in March 2023, two months before he was taken on the run. Correctional Service of Canada documents cite testimony from Montreal police alleging that Bégin was filmed by a surveillance camera near the building before and after the fire.
However, Montreal police never publicly identified him as a suspect and no charges were laid in the case.
Denis Bégin, aged 63, was serving a life sentence for a murder committed in Montreal in 1993 when he escaped from the minimum security section of the Federal Training Center (CFF), an establishment located in Laval.
On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to escape during a brief appearance by videoconference before Judge Marc-André Dagenais of the Court of Quebec in Laval. Judge Dagenais accepted a joint recommendation from the defense and the Crown.
Denis Bégin is being held at Port-Cartier Institution, a maximum security penitentiary where he was transferred after media reports last October linked him to the alleged arson of the heritage building. He contests his transfer to Port-Cartier, and the court documents linked to this contest cite the testimony of the Montreal police naming him as a suspect in the fatal fire.
He fled from prison on February 15, 2019. According to what was told in court, an accomplice was waiting for him outside the CFF in Laval and helped him escape. The accomplice was sentenced to nine months, which the judge took into account when determining Denis Bégin’s sentence.
Links with the fire in Old Montreal
Thursday’s hearing provided no further details about his escape. Corrections documents say Bégin told authorities he quickly obtained false IDs to start a new life under different names. He worked for various companies before starting a janitorial service business and began a relationship with a woman who did not know he was on the run from the law.
When Montreal police arrested Bégin last May, they said his arrest was linked to an investigation unrelated to his escape from the Laval penitentiary.
Court documents from the Correctional Service show that Montreal police identified him using his fingerprints during the investigation into the fire after he tried to use another name.
A vehicle linked to Bégin was captured by a surveillance camera on March 16, 2023, near the site of the heritage building which caught fire, the documents specify. On video, a person was seen walking toward the building, then entering and exiting about five minutes later and leaving. The fire broke out shortly after.
Denis Bégin claimed that he was only a witness to the fire and that he had gone to the building to retrieve tools. He said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of 19-year-old Ricardo Gizzi on Halloween night in 1993, a crime that earned him the nickname “the Halloween Killer.” Wearing a hockey mask, Bégin entered a bar and shot Ricardo Gizzi, who was also in a costume. News reports at the time indicated that bar patrons initially thought they were witnessing a Halloween prank.