The jury in Dominico Scarfo’s trial is now sequestered and will begin deliberations on Thursday morning.
Posted at 6:00 p.m.
Superior Court Judge Michel Pennou, who is presiding over the trial, which lasted about two months and took place at the Gouin Court Services Center in northern Montreal, finished giving his instructions to the jurors at the end of Wednesday afternoon.
Scarfo, 49, is charged with conspiracy and the premeditated murders of two Montreal mafia lieutenants, Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito, committed in Laval in 2016.
According to the claims of the prosecution, provided by Mr.and Marie-Christine Godbout, M.and Isabelle Poulin, M.and Karine Cordeau and M.and Catherine Sheitoyan, Scarfo was the person holding the gun that killed Giordano, when the latter had just arrived at the fitness center where he trained regularly, located near Highway 440, March 1, 2016 .
PHOTO THE PRESS
Lorenzo Giordano
As for the murder of Rocco Sollecito, who had just left his condo building on boulevard Saint-Elzéar in an SUV on May 27, 2016, Scarfo allegedly drove a car in front of the victim’s vehicle and made a mandatory stop of a few seconds to make it easier for an accomplice.
He came out of a bus shelter in which he was hiding and shot the mafioso with several projectiles while the latter was driving his SUV.
PHOTO THE PRESS
Rocco Sollecito
But two years later, this accomplice – whose identity cannot be revealed – started collaborating with the Sûreté du Québec, signed a contract with the State and became what is called a civil agent. infiltration (ACI).
In the summer of 2019, he reconnected with Scarfo and told him about the murders, while he was hiding a recording device.
These recordings, listened to in their entirety by the jurors, formed the backbone of the Prosecution’s evidence.
Another highlight – and at times heated – was the testimony of the former hitman turned ACI.
In his argument, Mr.and Godbout of the Prosecution insisted that many elements in the tapes and testimony of the police mole were corroborated.
For its part, the Defence, represented by Mand Luc Trempe, assisted by Mr.and Peter Georges-Louis, pleaded, in summary, that the testimony of the mole was not credible and that it should not be dissociated from the recordings presented in evidence.
Still according to the claims of the Prosecution, Giordano and Sollecito would have been killed on the order of the Salvatore brothers and Andrew Scoppa then at the heart, in 2016, of a conflict with the Sicilian faction of the Montreal mafia.
The two Scoppa brothers were in turn murdered in May and October 2019 respectively.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of La Presse.