A then 16-year-old was found guilty of the manslaughter of his 15-year-old former best friend on Wednesday at the Laval courthouse. A crime committed for “trivialities” by an angry teenager armed with two knives, concluded judge Catherine Perreault, who however acquitted him of premeditated murder.
Posted at 11:53 a.m.
“No violent death makes sense, but some are painfully futile. It is with this quote that the judge began her long judgment on Wednesday in the Youth Division. Sitting in the front row, Théo*, now 19, was accused of having planned the murder of Max, who was stabbed to death in a Laval park on 1er January 2020.
A few days before this tragic conclusion, Theo, the victim and her brother were inseparable friends. They were like the “three musketeers” notes the judge from the outset. It was a trivial dispute on social media over a classmate that led to this escalation of threats and Max’s death.
“The court cannot dismiss from its considerations the fact that this is a dispute between three former longtime friends over trivialities. […] The Court could only see firsthand the devastation caused in this file by the wounds of ego and the ridiculous desires to prove its value and its strength”, summed up Judge Perreault.
On the fateful evening, the accused Théo came to Parc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin at the invitation of the two brothers. However, he did not want to make peace with them, as he claimed at trial, concluded the judge. Indeed, underlines the judge, Théo came to the park by hiding two kitchen knives. In the days before, Theo had written “threatening” text messages against the brothers.
The judge also granted “no credibility” to the testimony of the accused, who tried throughout to “minimize” the existence of a conflict between him and the victim.
Contrary to the defense version, Theo did not fall into an “ambush” set by the two brothers and their three friends, who were also present at the park. The three former inseparable knew full well that they were going to fight.
The versions differ on the course of the fight, notes the judge. However, the evidence shows that it was Theo who caused the fatal blow to Max’s chest, which was hit two or three times. Nobody else had a bladed weapon that night.
The judge rejected the defendant’s defense of self-defence, even though Theo fell on several occasions, when he was attacked by the two brothers, then by their two friends. The judge agrees that the accused had a legitimate fear during the fight. However, she doesn’t believe that a reasonable person would have brought knives to fight against her former friends.
However, the judge was not unreasonably convinced that Theo intended to kill Max on her way to the park. “Despite this, the Tribunal remains convinced that the conflict is too trivial and the end of the friendship too recent for it to be able to conclude that [l’accusé] intentionally committed the irreparable,” she concluded.
He was found guilty of manslaughter, assault with a weapon and carrying a weapon for a dangerous purpose.