His trial was unique in Quebec judicial annals: a man with the mental age of a child sentenced to life in prison for having killed his spouse in a context of domestic violence. Three years after this verdict, Yves Nadeau will be entitled to a new trial, the Quebec Court of Appeal announced on Friday.
The reasons of Justices Jacques J. Lévesque, Stephen W. Hamilton and Michel Beaupré will be filed at a later date, says the two-page judgment quashing the murder conviction.
Yves Nadeau was found guilty in February 2020 of the unpremeditated murder of his spouse Louise Girard, which occurred in February 2014 in Montreal. The vulnerable woman had been stabbed and strangled. Judge Mario Longpré sentenced the killer to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 11 and a half years.
This verdict was surprising given the particular profile of Yves Nadeau. The 64-year-old man has a “moderate” intellectual disability and an IQ as low as 45, according to an expert. His mental age would be that of a 10 to 12 year old.
“He is someone who can be likened to a child under 10 years old. That tells you a lot! […] His intellectual disability is obvious! “, pleaded his lawyer Me Martin Latour in 2020. During the trial, Yves Nadeau indeed seemed to have trouble understanding the concept of swearing on the Bible.
His testimony at trial and his police questioning showed a man talking confusedly and speaking in childish language.
Nevertheless, Judge Longpré determined that Yves Nadeau was “fully responsible” for his actions and that his intellectual disability had not contributed to his crime. Note that Yves Nadeau has always denied having killed his spouse, repeating that she had simply “fallen”.
Judge Longpré concluded that Yves Nadeau stabbed his spouse, Louise Girard twice in their unsanitary apartment in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The killer then clumsily attempted to cover up the crime scene by washing the knife. It was, moreover, the only clean object in their accommodation.
In his six-minute call to 9-1-1, Yves Nadeau struggled to understand the employee’s instructions. ” She sleeps ! She fell! She fell on her head, ”he gets carried away. “My girlfriend is not light”, he lets go when the speaker asks him something.
The first rescuers discovered a “weird” scene in the apartment: a chair had been placed over the lifeless body of the victim. When the paramedics took the body out, Yves Nadeau told them: “Take out the fridge, while you’re at it! »
“We will be ready to restart the trial of Mr. Nadeau as soon as it is possible to do so,” indicated to The Press his lawyer M.e Martin Latour. It should be noted that the accused was represented on appeal by Mr.e Maxime Hebert Lafontaine.
Yves Nadeau was released during appeal proceedings in May 2020.