Stanley Minuty, convicted of plotting the murder of Gaetan Gosselin, great friend and confidant of boss Raynald Desjardins, has just been automatically released after serving two thirds of his sentence.
However, due to the high risks of recidivism, his long past, an observed indifference to the consequences of his actions and “the lack of determination to move away from his marginal lifestyle”, the Parole Board of the Canada imposes severe conditions on him, including remaining in a halfway house until the end of his sentence in spring 2027.
Minuty, 40, and other individuals from a red street gang called Unit 44, formed a commando force that was very active in exacting revenge against Sicilians, the targets of a failed putsch attempted by rebel clans of the Montreal mafia between 2009 and 2011.
In January 2013, they shot and killed Gaetan Gosselin, while the 69-year-old man was taking out the trash in front of the Desjardins family’s residential building on rue Jean-Tavernier in Montreal.
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Gaetan Gosselin
The same month, they assassinated Vincenzo Scuderi, right-hand man of Giuseppe De Vito, another rebel mafia leader who, along with Raynald Desjardins, would have taken part in this failed putsch, according to the police theory.
The suspects were arrested following a major investigation by Major Crimes and the SPVM’s Organized Crime Division called Minuterie.
In June 2017, they pleaded guilty to a reduced count of conspiracy for both murders. Minuty, who police said was the shooter in the Gosselin attack, was sentenced to nearly ten years.
“Unequivocal” violence
In a ten-page decision rendered at the end of last week, a parole commissioner points out that Minuty accumulated 12 disciplinary violations while he was in the provincial prison system, between June 2013 and December 2016.
He accuses him of violent behavior in three of these breaches, including a physical altercation with a fellow inmate.
Once at the penitentiary, Minuty was involved in another fight with a fellow inmate against whom he then allegedly placed an order to be attacked.
“You currently remain a subject of interest to the Department of Preventive Security given your active street gang affiliation status and your prison attendance. To impose the condition of assignment, the Commission considered several criteria, including your propensity for violence which is unequivocal. You have accumulated violent offenses since the opening of your adult criminal file and these acts culminated in the offenses leading to this sentence. Out of greed and choice, you agreed to shoot a victim point-blank in order to honor a paid contract. Although you did not inherit criminal liability for the loss of life, the victim nevertheless died,” the commissioner wrote in his decision.
In addition to being sent to a halfway house, Minuty must have a single cell phone and a single SIM card, must provide his incoming and outgoing call records and unlock his applications upon request, and must not delete anything.
He will also have to disclose all his financial transactions and will be prohibited from using drugs, frequenting licensed places and communicating with anyone involved in crime or with a criminal history.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.