Serge Boutin, victim of a murder in July 2021, in the Val-des-Sources sector, was reportedly buried alive. Lana Dubois, who admitted to having participated in the crime, gave a blood-curdling account of the events at the first-degree murder trial of her ex-partner, Charles Lassonde.
• Also read: Murder of Serge Boutin: the trial of Charles Lassonde opens in Sherbrooke
The account of the events of the night of July 6 to 7, 2021 presented by Lana Dubois sowed a very special atmosphere in the courtroom this afternoon. Disbelief and sometimes sadness could be observed among some jurors.
According to the witness, she and Charles Lassonde were furious with Serge Boutin, a long-time friend of Lana Dubois. Lassonde had convinced his girlfriend that Serge Boutin wanted him harm. Among the elements mentioned, Lassonde allegedly told Dubois that Serge Boutin, whom everyone nicknamed “Bibitte” in this trial, wanted to rape her, had stolen her cell phone, had made a duplicate key to their car in order to steal them and more. It is not clear at this stage whether these elements were founded or not. However, that night, they decided to confront him.
The confrontation, which took place in the early hours of the morning in Val-des-Sources, however, quickly turned into a kidnapping. With Dubois driving their car and Lassonde sitting in the back with the victim, the three drove to the area of a quarry in Danville. Upon their arrival, the victim allegedly tried to flee into a field twice, each time being caught by Lassonde. He was allegedly beaten with a telescopic baton.
After being joined the second time by Lassonde, the victim allegedly asked the couple to be transported to the hospital to treat his injuries.
” Too late. Too late,” one of the two members of the couple would have replied. The victim also wrapped his long-sleeved sweater around his head, presumably as a bandage. He was then attached by Lassonde.
The rest of the story seemed to make some members of the jury emotional.
“Charles saw a cavity on the side of the road,” said the witness, Lana Dubois, with tears in her eyes. I stopped the vehicle, left the lights on. It was the lighting that was there,” she began.
“Charles asked Bibitte to lie on his back, he took out a shovel. There was a cavity and there was a kind of small earthen wall. He took some dirt from the wall and started throwing dirt on his face,” said Lana Dubois.
The victim would then have asked to move his head bandage over his mouth and eyes, to avoid getting dirt on these places. Lassonde would rather go get a roll of plastic to spread it in the hole where the victim was still located.
Lana Dubois would have started filming the scene at this precise moment.
“I ask the victim to look at the camera,” Dubois recalled.
“Why did you decide to do this?” “, asked Crown prosecutor Stéphanie Landry. ” I don’t know. I have asked myself this question over and over again, she began. I film it and tell my friend. ”Why didn’t you listen to me, look what happened to you. For all the crosses you’ve done. At the same time, I’m angry at everything that has come from all of this. I am incomprehension, I am in fear,” she continued.
Drugs at the heart of the relationship between the witness, the accused and the victim
Lana Dubois was 18 years old when she met the victim, whom everyone nicknamed “Bibitte”, whose real name was Serge Boutin. The witness was quick to explain that the link between the two “was drugs.” Dubois explained that she used cocaine, hash and crack, among other things. She explained that she met the accused, Charles Lassonde, “at the same time”. They became spouses, before their relationship ended since Lassonde was in prison.
-About twenty years passed before the two met again, in 2016, according to the witness. After a long stay in British Columbia, the two returned to Quebec, before settling into accommodation in Victoriaville. In the summer of 2021, Lana Dubois, according to her statements, wanted to end their relationship.
“There was no more love, it was just consumption. It was withering away day by day, week by week,” she told the jurors. “Bibitte”, who was in Victoriaville at the same time, was then invited to come and live with Lana Dubois, who wanted Charles Lassonde to leave the accommodation.
“He stayed almost a week, he slept on the little loveseat,” explained Dubois. The accused Charles Lassonde, however, still remained there.
“He thought I was conspiring in [son dos] with Bibitte. He thought that I was using in secret with my friend, that Bibitte had money and that he was pretending that he didn’t have any. That wasn’t it. All I wanted was for Charles to get out of the apartment and for Bibitte to come work with me and to contribute to the rent,” explained the witness.
Lassonde allegedly recovered Serge Boutin’s cell phone while he was away. He would then have indicated to Lana Dubois that “Bibitte” had consulted pages on the dark web. “That Bibitte would have been on sites of hackage [piratage]on how to remove the light from the phone, how to record without the person knowing,” said the witness.
“Everything Charles told me, it seemed so believable, so true. Given that I have no knowledge of technology, of computers, it is easier to believe that Bibitte would steal my identity,” detailed the witness. Her testimony, led by criminal and penal prosecutor Stéphanie Landry, will continue Tuesday afternoon.
His understanding with the police explained
Lana Dubois explained from the outset to the 14 jurors that the police had come to pick her up from prison, a few days before her trial, in November 2024. She had finally chosen to collaborate in the investigation. The trial was scheduled for November 13 and the police came to pick her up on November 9. She produced a video statement the following day.
“On November 11, we go to the location. The location of the event, not the kidnapping. The place where I thought he was buried.” – Lana Dubois, witness at the trial of Charles Lassonde
In the following days, she underwent a polygraph before signing her collaboration agreement. She later pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter.
Dubois explained that he obtained an amount of $650 “for food” upon signing the agreement. She was also entitled, during her time in prison, to $200 per month for the canteen, $75 per month for calling cards and $375 for clothing. Upon his release from prison, he was also awarded an amount of $650 per month for his “transportation, taxi, bus”. However, it was not possible to know whether she still has access to these sums today. Lana Dubois has already served her sentence.
“I didn’t decide to tell the truth for that amount. I found out right after I was going to collect the money. I wanted to tell it, the truth,” she told the jurors, struggling to hold back her tears.
Remember that Charles Lassonde’s ex-wife was also initially accused of first degree murder and her trial was scheduled to begin on November 13, 2023. She finally chose to collaborate in the investigation a few days before her trial. She pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and received a four-and-a-half year prison sentence.
His testimony is scheduled to continue tomorrow.
