A man is sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing a good Samaritan suffering from Alzheimer’s who had agreed to take him in. Mad with rage, the killer attacked the victim for no apparent reason. A case that went under the radar at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Charged with second-degree murder in September 2020, Dean Oliver Leonard Meister cut short the legal process by pleading guilty to a reduced count of manslaughter. The 52-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in detention on October 2, following a joint suggestion from lawyers at the Montreal courthouse.
This sad affair, which occurred at the worst of the first wave of the pandemic, received almost no media coverage. The victim was Steve McClean, a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In March 2020, he invited a homeless man, Dean Oliver Leonard Meister, to sleep on his sofa in exchange for some chores.
Their relationship quickly deteriorated for an unexplained reason. On the night of April 7-8, 2020, Dean Oliver Leonard Meister punched Steve McClean in the chin in the dining room. The good Samaritan fell and hit his head. He was unconscious. The killer dragged him into the bathtub. Steve McClean regained consciousness and told the other man to leave him alone.
Dean Oliver Leonard Meister’s memories remain hazy. He believes he was in a state of “rage” and “loss of control” for reasons he cannot explain.
In all cases, Dean Oliver Leonard Meister was merciless with the victim. He kicked and punched him in the face and body. Steve McClean lay dying in the bathtub and occasionally regained consciousness. At one point, he tried to get out of the bathtub, but his tormentor violently put him back in place.
Dean Oliver Leonard Meister then cleaned up his clothes, as well as the blood in the apartment.
In the meantime, a friend of Steve McClean, who called him every day, was desperately trying to reach him. The next day, the doctor who was treating Steve McClean alerted the police, having heard nothing from her patient.
When the patrol officers arrived at the apartment in the Latin Quarter, on Boulevard De Maisonneuve, Dean Oliver Leonard Meister responded to them. He then identified himself under a false name. He was only wearing a swimsuit and seemed very nervous. He claimed Steve McClean wasn’t there.
Later that day, officers returned to the apartment and found Steve McClean, seriously injured, in the bathtub. He was barely breathing then. His injuries were extremely serious. He died a few weeks later.
If Dean Oliver Leonard Meister was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, he actually only has 8 years and 3 months left in prison to serve, taking into account his long period of preventive detention, during which a day counts as a day and a half.
Me Jean-François Roy represented the public prosecutor, while Me Véronique Talbot defended the accused.