Found guilty by a jury on May 20 of the unpremeditated murder of Maxime Dugas-Lepage, Steve Levesque wants to force a second trial.
• Read also: Steve Lévesque is found guilty of second degree murder
His lawyer filed a motion to that effect with the Court of Appeal a few days ago.
The defense bases its claim on the recent judgment of the Court of Appeal in Hunt v. The Queen. In this case, the judge allegedly failed to offer a possibility of a verdict during his instructions to the jury.
In the meantime, the legal process continues. On Wednesday, prosecutors made sentencing submissions.
The Crown is proposing a life sentence with no possibility of applying for parole for 16 years.
The Crown prosecutor insists on the lack of mitigating factors to justify this suggestion.
“One of the most aggravating factors is the fact that the body was never found and that the individuals, including Mr. Lévesque, tried to conceal their crime,” explained Me Jérôme Simard.
Steve Lévesque’s lawyer asks instead that his client wait 12 years before being able to file a request for parole.
The judge will hand down his sentence on September 15 at the Rimouski courthouse.
The two co-defendants of Steve Lévesque plead guilty
In addition, Maxime Labrie and Carl Lévesque, both accused of complicity after the fact in this case, chose to plead guilty on Wednesday at the Rimouski courthouse. They admit to having moved and disposed of the victim’s body and to having tried to remove the evidence of the murder.
For his involvement, Carl Lévesque was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. He has been detained since his arrest, so he has only 15 months and 2 weeks left to serve behind bars.
The judge imposed on Maxime Labrie a sentence of five and a half years. Because of his preventive detention, he now has 2 years less 1 day of sentence to serve.