The cross-examination of Lana Dubois continued Friday. Seven days after the events, the woman who pleaded guilty to manslaughter before becoming a witness for the Crown admitted to having written to her sister that her friend, the victim Serge Boutin alias “Bibitte”, “was not going to be greatly missed world”.
“He owed everyone money, everyone was mad at him because he had them crossed on deals“, she explained.
The 51-year-old woman also mentioned that she would not have participated in the crime if she had known in advance that Charles Lassonde wanted to kill her friend of the last 30 years. “If Charles had told me that we were going to kill him that evening, believe me sincerely, I would never have gone to Asbestos to try to find him and confront him,” she told the 14 jurors , Friday afternoon.
“I never thought it would come to this for a hackage telephone number and an ATM card [volée]“, she continued.
“It was a night that got completely out of hand and I felt like I had to be there out of fear. […] If he hits Bibitte when he runs away, he might run after me and hit me too.”
— Lana Dubois, repentant witness
Ms. Dubois reportedly wrote to her sister “that she was in shock” when she spoke to her, seven days after the death of her friend Serge Boutin. “I live as if I were in a movie,” she reported. I didn’t realize it yet. It’s hard even three years later to describe the feelings inside me. I have no pain, no anger. This is not a happy event, it is tragic and human loss follows.”
Lana Dubois reiterated that Charles Lassonde had pitted her against Serge Boutin.
Ms. Dubois also has a vague memory of the evening of the tragedy, when Charles Lassonde is said to have told the victim that it is a “beautiful night to die, because it is a full moon and it is well lit”.
The victim, an informer?
Ms. Dubois confirms that she did not like informers when she was in the crime field. And she also believed that Serge Boutin had become an informer.
“Do you become violent by under with the informers? defense lawyer Martin Latour asked Lana Dubois, referring to words she had already said.
“Sometimes our words exceed our thoughts. […] That doesn’t make me a violent person,” replied Ms. Dubois.
Fentanyl Overdose
The jury heard that a fatal overdose was caused by Fentanyl that Dubois sold to an acquaintance in British Columbia a few years ago.
Lana Dubois’ drug use was at the heart of the rest of her testimony at the Sherbrooke courthouse on Friday morning. A long cross-examination that has lasted since Wednesday, which seems to be starting to irritate Lana Dubois and probably to make the jury sigh.
According to her testimony, Lana Dubois was put in contact with a woman through Serge Boutin. Lana Dubois sold Fentanyl to this woman while warning her of its danger. This woman gave it to another person who died of an overdose.
-Serge Boutin was reportedly buried alive by Charles Lassonde and Lana Dubois. (Sureté du Québec Archives)
Lana Dubois does not feel excessively guilty about this death. “Somewhere, yes, I feel responsible. It was not me who gave this drug to this person who was not used to using […] It could very well have happened [via d’autres trafiquants]“, she analyzed.
Through these questions and many others, defense lawyer Martin Latour tried to establish that Lana Dubois was angry with the victim Serge Boutin. He also returned to a story dating from 1999, when Serge Boutin was intercepted by the police while he was driving while impaired. Before police arrived at the vehicle, he had switched places with Lana Dubois, who had been charged with impaired driving.
He comes close to death in Manitoba
Lana Dubois also said that when she returned from British Columbia in 2021, the couple ran out of gas. Charles Lassonde allegedly suggested that Lana Dubois take a quick trip to the gas station.
Charles Lassonde, of Victoriaville, is currently on trial for first degree murder. (Archives La Tribune)
“I had planned my dose of Fentanyl so as not to go into withdrawal on the road, but to start it in Quebec,” recalled the repentant witness. I knew I had enough for the road. We often ran out of gas because we had a trailer and we were heavy.”
“I fell asleep in the car and it was the police who knocked on my window asking me what drugs he had taken, because he was in the hospital,” she continued. He had stolen my pipe, smoked Fentanyl in the bathroom of the convenience store and overdosed.”
The woman said she was “disappointed” with Charles Lassonde’s behavior at that time. “I felt betrayed, I gave him my trust,” she reported.
“It wasn’t me who told him: steal my pipe and smoke! Because of the overdose he had, I could have been stuck on the side of the road for days!”
— Lana Dubois, repentant witness
The woman reported that drug use had affected her spouse, so much so that she wanted him to move out of the rent they had together. “He shamed me in the end,” she continued. He was thin, scared my three and a half year old granddaughter, showed up at my son’s house, asked to search the cellar. Enough that he no longer wore his dentures, because they no longer fit him. I had contempt.”
The woman had even offered Serge Boutin to become her roommate when Lassonde left the apartment
The cross-examination will continue on Monday.
