Murder of Guylaine Potvin | Marc-André Grenon guilty of first degree murder

On the night of April 28, 2000, Marc-André Grenon entered Guylaine Potvin’s apartment, in Jonquière, with the intention of sexually assaulting and killing her. In her bedroom, where she was sleeping with her teddy bear, he hit her, hit her, then hit her again, before suffocating her with a belt. After escaping justice for 8,202 days, he was finally sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday at the Chicoutimi courthouse.

“Guilty,” dropped the jury representative when reading the two charges against the man: first degree murder and serious sexual assault.

An announcement that came after less than an hour of deliberation and which triggered a cry of victory felt in the packed room where the five weeks of trial took place.

Invited by Judge François Huot to address the court, the family of Guylaine Potvin, who was present throughout the proceedings, declined the invitation.

Then, the magistrate turned to Marc-André Grenon, to ask him if he had an apology to present to the parents of the young woman, “you who expressly caused the death of their daughter”. “No,” the man simply replied, standing in his box.

A response which triggered the wrath of Judge Huot.

“Disgust and contempt”

“You are a coward, you are a coward, you are a coward. You understand me ? », he began, in front of the jury, who remained in the room to hear the sentence.

“You spent 22 years living with unwarranted freedom, getting up every morning as if nothing had happened, looking in the mirror every morning. How could you do that? “, he continued.

“Meanwhile, Guylaine was lying six feet underground. For what ? Because of your moral depravity, your sexual immorality, because of your killer instinct,” he said, reminding the accused that he had attacked “a young woman in a situation of complete vulnerability.”

“I only feel disgust and contempt for the actions you took on April 28, 2000,” he said, adding to Marc-André Grenon that his actions “made his heart break.”

The only light in this dark picture painted by the judge: “may God have given life to Guylaine’s father and mother long enough for them to witness the sentence that I am about to inflict on you.”

The worst sentence provided for in the Criminal Code: life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. For the serious sexual assault, Marc-André Grenon also received a prison sentence to be served concurrently.

The accused’s version rejected

By declaring Marc-André Grenon of the two counts he faced, the jury completely rejected the version presented by his lawyers who argued that he had entered the young woman’s house with a completely different intention, namely to steal. After which an altercation would have followed which ultimately led to the death of the young woman.

This version of the facts opened the door to a verdict of second degree murder, the sexual assault of the young woman could not be recognized as such if it had taken place after her death.

However, the jurors are more in favor of the prosecution’s theory according to which Marc-André Grenon’s actions were premeditated and therefore that he should be found guilty of first degree murder. To arrive at this verdict, they could also determine that the murder of Guylaine Potvin, which Marc-André Grenon admitted to having caused during his trial, resulted from the sexual assault she had suffered.

“After so many years swimming in nothingness and suffering, today we turn the last page of this long chapter of our respective lives. That said, we remain forever marked by the sudden departure of our beautiful Guylaine. The extreme violence to which she was a victim was the opposite of what she embodied, namely gentleness, kindness and peace,” declared her mother, Jeannine Caouette, at the end of the hearing.

Judge Huot ended his intervention by congratulating the work of the Sûreté du Québec investigators responsible for the case and the unsolved crimes team of the police force thanks to whom Marc-André Grenon was arrested after more than 22 years. A job thanks to which “several individuals will sleep less well this evening after listening to the news,” he noted.

Marc-André Grenon was arrested in October 2022, in Granby. A few months earlier, thanks to a surveillance operation, the police were able to recover a cardboard glass that the suspect had thrown in a trash can after going to see a film at the cinema. Analysis of a DNA sample taken from this glass matched DNA found at the crime scene 22 years earlier.

This shadowing operation had been authorized since his last name had emerged as a “priority” in the police investigation thanks to an innovative method of genetic analysis developed by the Laboratory of Judicial Sciences and Forensic Medicine.

Another trial to come

Since the sequestration of the jury, it is once again possible to discuss certain facts linked to this case and of which its members are unaware, including the other accusations against Marc-André Grenon.

Because, in addition to the murder of Guylaine Potvin, the 49-year-old man is also accused of having sexually assaulted and left for dead another young woman in the Sainte-Foy district, in Quebec, barely two months later.

This last crime has already been mentioned by the media, the victim even having testified under cover of anonymity since his identity is protected by the court, but it was no longer possible to mention it since the opening of the trial in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.

Indeed, as the cases are judged separately, it became essential from the start of the hearings at the courthouse in Chicoutimi that the selected jurors were not aware of the second case so as not to color their opinion.

It was close

At the time of their selection, several candidates were thus excluded after being questioned by the responsible judge, François Huot, on their knowledge of the Quebec affair.

Around fifty candidates had to parade before the magistrate before the latter was finally able to constitute a jury of 14 people.

And on at least one occasion, despite many precautions, both on the part of the prosecution and the defense, this second affair, the existence of which they had to continue to ignore, almost came to light.

During the testimony of forensic biology expert Caroline Paquette, a document filed as evidence and distributed to the jury stipulated that she had been brought in to work on the “Bélier project”. However, in police jargon, the term “project” designates a case where several investigations are grouped together.

The jurors were quickly taken out of the room and then Judge Huot took care to tear out the pages from each of their copies where this information was mentioned one by one before a redacted version was given to them.

When they were sequestered for their deliberations on Monday, the jurors were still unaware that Marc-André Grenon would eventually have a second trial.

Note that he benefits from the presumption of innocence in this second case, the trial having not yet started. The testimony of the victim and other witnesses having also not yet been presented to the court, they could be contested.