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GUILTY AS HELLS |
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By CATHERINE SOLYOM
Montreal
Gazette
Sept.
12, 2003
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Jean-Guy Bourgouin: "Guilty." |
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René Charlebois: "Guilty." |
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Denis Houle: "Guilty." |
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One by one, nine of Quebec's most notorious bikers
stood up behind the bulletproof glass and pronounced the word that
brought an abrupt end to one of the biggest murder trials in
Canadian history. |
Jean-Guy Bourgouin |
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In a courtroom thick with anticipation, all nine -
including four of Hells Angels kingpin Mom Boucher's right-hand men
in the elite Nomads - pleaded guilty to drug trafficking,
gangsterism and conspiracy to commit murder. |
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Plainclothes police officers lined the walls to see
where their eight-year crackdown on biker gangs would lead, while
teams of lawyers from both Hells Angels megatrials hustled for
seats. |
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Then there was the public - including the girlfriends
and wives of the accused - waiting to hear how almost a year of
haggling and waiting and more haggling would end. |
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"This time, I didn't make you come for nothing,"
Quebec Superior Court Justice Réjean Paul told the jury before
informing them of the guilty pleas and sending them home for
good. |
No picture
Rene Charlebois
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"Now I can say 'mission accomplished.' " |
Denis Houle |
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Sentencing will be on Sept. 22. |
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Paul thanked the jury for their "colossal" work,
determination and patience throughout 11 months of a trial prone to
derailment and frequent delays. In fact, the jury sat in court for
only about 65 days since the trial began last October. |
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Paul also told them what they would have had to endure
had the nine bikers not pleaded guilty: about 200 witnesses would
have been called to testify, costing the government - and taxpayers
- several million dollars. |
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That's on top of the $16.5 million spent to build the
special high-tech courthouse in which they sat, and boosted legal
aid fees for many of the lawyers. |
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Chief prosecutor André Vincent also thanked the jury
and told them the justice minister would be dropping the
first-degree murder charges facing the nine bikers, who, on
top of the four Nomads, included one Nomad prospect and four
Rockers, a gang formed specifically to do the Nomads' dirty
work. |
Daniel Lanthier |
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All the charges relate to crimes committed between
1995 and 2001, when the Hells Angels were locked in a deadly turf
war with rival gangs for control of Montreal's drug
trade. |
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Vincent insisted to journalists, however, that this
was not a deal designed to save money at the expense of
justice. |
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"It's a fact that such trials cost society a lot of
money," he said outside the courtroom. "But I assure you it was
never a question of saving money." |
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Rather, it was a question of the Crown hedging its
bets, he said. |
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The Crown had "infallible" evidence proving the
charges to which the nine pleaded guilty yesterday, Vincent said,
and linking each biker to 13 murders would have been much more
difficult. (The jury had heard that often the shooter would use a
getaway vehicle that was later torched to hide fingerprints or DNA
evidence and that those who ordered a killing didn't necessarily
carry it out.) |
Sylvain Laplante |
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But while this megatrial is now officially over, a new
trial or trials will be scheduled for the final three of what was
originally a cast of 13 bikers accused of 13 murders - Jean-Richard
Larivière, Pierre Laurin and Gregory Wooley - for whom the Crown
says it does have direct evidence linking them to the
murders. |
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Another trial will also be held for Paul (Smurf)
Brisebois, who decided to stick with his lawyer, Réal Charbonneau,
who was tossed out of court for continually disrupting decorum and
talking back to the judge. |
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A publication ban on a special motion that saw the
trial delayed for weeks remains in effect until after the sentencing
of the nine bikers. But yesterday proved an auspicious occasion for
a post mortem on the megatrial. |
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Martin Tremblay, the only defence lawyer willing to
comment yesterday, said his client, Jean-Richard Larivière, was
happy with the outcome even though he was not part of the
deal. |
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His new trial would be much simpler, Tremblay said.
"(The megatrial) was a good experience, but it's complicated with 12
(accused)." |
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Vincent said that despite the problems, the
mega-option was the only way to go. |
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"Is it preferable to have 42 trials or one?" Vincent
asked. "Megatrials reflect the situation of Canadian society where
organized crime is a fact. The question is, are our procedures
adapted to that fact?" |
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Megatrials - and mega-headaches - are not unique to
Quebec, Vincent added, as other provinces are having difficulties
with this "new phenomenon." |
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Also, a gangsterism megatrial in an adjacent courtroom
at Gouin was aborted seven months into the proceedings at great
expense last year, when the presiding judge quit following a
reprimand by the Canadian Judicial Council. |
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In comparison, this megatrial was a stunning
success.
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"It's a great day for justice in Quebec," said
Vincent's boss, Justice Minister Marc Bellemare, in Quebec City
yesterday. "I give my respects to the prosecutors who worked on the
case. They have done exceptional work." |
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ALLISON HANES contributed to this report |
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Copyright 2003 Montreal
Gazette |
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'The bosom
of a gang' |
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By PAUL CHERRY
Montreal
Gazette
Sept.
12, 2003
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Among the nine gang members to plead
guilty at the Hells Angels megatrial yesterday were men who ranged
in rank from "full-patch" Nomad, once considered elite status in
Quebec, to Rocker, which is basically someone expected to do the
dirty work for the gang's network. |
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They also ranged in age, from 35 to
53, and criminal backgrounds. But they were united in what
prosecutor André Vincent referred to at the start of the trial as
"the bosom of a gang."
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"They had an objective that was common - that is, to
assure the supremacy of the Hells Angels Nomad chapter on the
territory of Montreal," Vincent said.
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Here is a look at the nine.
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Denis Houle, 50 (Nomad): "With the Hells, I have found
a family," Houle told a prison psychologist who had asked him why he
wouldn't quit the gang back in 1992. |
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Gilles Mathieu |
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Houle, who dropped out of school in Grade 8, was
serving time for being an accomplice after the fact in the 1985
purge of five Hells Angels at the gang's bunker in
Lennoxville. |
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While out on parole in 1993, Houle told the parole
board he was working for a hardware company with a salary of
$30,000. But his claims appeared to be a ruse when he was arrested
for drunk driving in 1995 and was caught wearing his gang colours.
The police also found evidence that Houle was helping to set up the
Nomads chapter. Months later, the chapter was officially chartered
and Houle was considered a founding member. |
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Gilles Mathieu, 53 (Nomad): Considered by police to be
one of the more intelligent members of the Nomad chapter. According
to a court document made public last year, Mathieu owned advertising
signboards at the West Edmonton Mall worth $2.3 million before he
was arrested. |
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He has rarely spent time in jail in Quebec and avoided
being convicted in the 1985 massacre of five fellow Hells Angels
members in Lennoxville because he was able to prove he had shown up
after the carnage took place. But he, Houle and six other gang
members were caught in February 2001 holding a meeting in a downtown
hotel room looking over photos of their rivals. People at the hotel
noticed some of the gang members were armed. When the police
arrested the eight, they seized an equal amount of firearms. Mathieu
quickly pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in
prison. |
Pierre Provencher |
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Normand Robitaille, 35 (Nomad): In 1995, when
Robitaille was only a Rocker, he and Jean-Guy Bourgouin were
arrested together in an extortion plot. The pair broke into the home
of a South Shore businessperson, saying they wanted to collect
$450,000 the man owed to a business associate. |
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The victim was driven to a Caisse Populaire in St.
Hyacinthe and ordered to get two cheques for $225,000 each. The
victim called the police from inside the credit union and Robitaille
and Bourgouin were arrested as they waited in a car outside. Both
were armed with handguns. |
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While serving his sentence for the botched extortion
attempt, Robitaille was suspected of running a small drug network
inside a penitentiary. Prison officials caught wind of his gang
affiliations, but Robitaille assured a psychologist that he wanted
out. He told her he realized that if he didn't quit the gang, his
life was in danger. |
Normand Robitaille |
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René Charlebois, 38 (Nomad): By the age of 19,
Charlebois was already a criminal, breaking into nine chalets in a
town in the Laurentians in the same day and stealing anything he
could get his hands on, including fishing equipment and
binoculars. |
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Informants testified that during the 1990s, while
Charlebois was a Rocker, he earned $12,000 a month as part of the
Hells Angels drug-trafficking network. |
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Stéphane Sirois, a former member of the Rockers who
turned informant, said Charlebois asked him to do surveillance on a
Rock Machine associate who eventually ended up dead. |
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Guillaume Serra, 38 (Nomad prospect): According to
court testimony from an informant, Serra controlled a significant
amount of cocaine trafficking on St. Laurent Blvd. |
Guillaume Serra |
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In 1994, Serra was arrested with 42 grams of cocaine
after a Montreal police officer on patrol noticed his car
double-parked on St. Laurent. Serra was selling the cocaine to
another man. But a year later, he managed to beat the rap because
the charges were thrown out of court. |
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Jean-Guy Bourgouin, 37 (Rocker): Before the megatrial,
he was perhaps best known for a 1998 altercation in a trendy
downtown bar between members of the Rockers and players from the
Alouettes football team, including linebacker Stephan Reid and
quarterback Anthony Calvillo. |
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The men were tossed out of the club, but Bourgouin
ended up beating Reid with a metal pole outside. The biker pleaded
guilty to assault and was fined $2,000 and ordered to stay out of
bars. |
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Daniel Lanthier, 44 (Rocker): According to court
testimony from an informant, Lanthier was supposed to seek out new
territory where the Hells Angels could sell drugs on Montreal
Island. |
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He was one of the first members of the Rockers but,
according to an informant witness, he got in trouble with the gang
for selling drugs on the South Shore. He had to be reminded that his
Rockers patch limited him to Montreal. |
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Sylvain Laplante, 45 (Rocker): While the Hells and the
Rockers were under intense police surveillance, a bug was placed in
Laplante's car. He was overheard bragging to his wife about how
powerful the Nomads were. |
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Before he was arrested in March 2001, Laplante had
amassed a significant criminal record, including four convictions
for drug trafficking in 1991. |
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Pierre Provencher, 54 (Rocker): According to court
testimony, Provencher was among a group of Rockers who were supposed
to gain control of drug turf in Verdun during the late 1990s. The
Rock Machine was already well-established in the area, and the
battle for Verdun became a focal point in the biker-gang
war. |
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Informant Stéphane (Godasse) Gagné testified that it
was Provencher who recruited him to be a member of the Rockers
"football team," a euphemism for the death squad. |
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-------- |
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The Victims |
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Pierre (Ti-Bum) Beauchamp, 46, killed Dec. 20, 1996: A
drug dealer close to the rival Rock Machine who knew there was a
Hells Angels contract out on his head. |
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Marc (Cash) Belhumeur, 25, killed Jan. 24, 1997: A
member of the Rock Machine, Belhumeur was fatally shot on his
birthday in a Notre Dame St. E. bar said to be a Hells Angels
hangout. |
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Yvon (Momo) Roy, 57, killed July 30, 1998: Shot while
mowing the lawn of his Repentigny home. He was a member of the
Alliance, a group affiliated with the Rock Machine. |
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Johnny Plescio, 34, killed Sept. 8, 1998: The founding
member of the Rock Machine was watching TV at his Laval home when
assassins cut his cable wire. He got up to check the TV and was shot
through the window. |
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Jean Rosa, 33, killed Sept. 24, 1998: A member of the
Rock Machine's hit squad, the Dark Circle, Rosa was shot outside his
Laval home. He had served 21/2 years in jail for the attempted
murder of two Hells Angels sympathizers. |
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Pierre Bastien, 41, killed Oct. 22, 1998: A member of
the Dark Circle hit squad. In December 1998, police said they would
have liked to question him in connection with the 1997 BioChem
Pharma bombing, but by then he'd already been killed. Bastien was
convicted in 1996 of being part of a conspiracy to kill a Hells
Angels sympathizer. |
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Stéphane Morgan and Daniel Boulet, both 30, killed
Nov. 10, 1998: A full-fledged member of the Rock Machine, Morgan had
a lengthy criminal record, mostly for drug and weapons possession.
He was shot to death in a car in north-end Montreal, along with
Boulet, a drug dealer for the gang. Boulet had recently been charged
with a parole violation and had been accused of trafficking in
cocaine and hashish since 1997. He and Morgan had the same birthday,
Dec. 12. |
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Richard Parent, killed Aug. 5, 1999: The
brother-in-law of the Cazzetta brothers, two founding members of the
Rock Machine who are in jail. |
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Serge Hervieux, 38, killed Aug. 26, 1999: An innocent
victim of the biker wars. At a car-rental business, a hit man called
out the name Serge, looking for another man - probably his boss,
Serge Bruneau, a suspected member of the Dark Circle. But Hervieux,
a father of two, looked up and was shot. |
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Tony Plescio, 36, killed Oct. 1, 1999: A founding Rock
Machine member like his brother, Johnny. He was shot while leaving a
birthday party for his daughter at a McDonald's restaurant. His wife
was shot in the leg. |
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Patrick Turcotte, 24, killed May 1, 2000: The Rock
Machine associate was shot several times while walking in
Verdun. |
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François Gagnon, 41, killed June 6, 2000: The
convicted drug dealer was shot dead in his Montreal North home. He
had had psychiatric problems and had been charged a few times with
uttering threats or harassing people, including Journal de Montréal
crime reporter Michel Auger, a Montreal police officer and Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien. |
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Copyright 2003 Montreal
Gazette |
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Prime
Time Crime current
headlines |
March
2004 |
