A 21-year-old murderer who killed and dismembered a sixty-year-old, believing he was avenging a friend who was the victim of a pedophile, will have to wait 14 long years before hoping for release.
• Also read: Sexagenarian killed and dismembered: 10 years or 20 years in the shadows for a young murderer?
• Also read: Man killed and dismembered: Nicolas Côté’s accomplice gets home prison
Judge Lyne Décarie sealed the fate of Nicolas Côté on Friday at the Longueuil courthouse, highlighting his “icy insensitivity”.
Photo taken from Facebook
The criminal listened to the magistrate for a long time without flinching, his gaze fixed on the ground, in the accused box.
The young man admitted to being the author of the unpremeditated murder and the outrage on the body of Luc Lafontaine, in the fall of 2022.
His extremely violent crimes automatically earned him a life sentence.
But the court had to decide how much time he would serve behind bars before being eligible for parole.
The positions of the parties were diametrically opposed: the 20 years suggested by the Crown came close to the maximum sentence, which is 25 years, while the defense instead requested the minimum possible time for a murder, i.e. 10 years.
Luc Lafontaine was killed in his residence in La Prairie. He was initially reported missing, but his dismembered body was found a few days later, while Nicolas Côté and his girlfriend, Zoé Boutin, were preparing to get rid of it.
Photo Agence QMI, THIERRY LAFORCE
It got out of hand
The murderer did not know his victim. But he had contacted her in order to protect a friend, who said he had been attacked by Luc Lafontaine.
The victim Luc Lafontaine.
Photo provided by the ROUSSILLON INTERMUNICIPAL POLICE REGION
The latter was never charged in connection with these allegations.
The friend, whose identity is protected by the court, confided to Côté that the attacks had generated dark thoughts in him and that he was mutilating himself.
He said he feared Lafontaine, who was insistent, making multiple contacts on different platforms, despite the young man’s attempts to block his number.
“I wish him to heal, to get better,” Judge Décarie also mentioned about him.
On the day of the murder, Côté showed up at Lafontaine’s house to confront him, but things got out of hand. The victim was hit in the head with a hammer and stabbed.
More details to come…
-With the collaboration of Valérie Gonthier
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