One of the three men on trial in a case where they are charged with carrying out a triple murder in Rivière-des-Prairies three years ago admitted on the stand he often showed up for drug deals armed with a loaded automatic firearm in the months leading up to the day the homicides were carried out.
The trial at the Montreal courthouse began in September and the defence began last week with testimony from Clifford Domerçant-Barosy, 29, one of the accused.
The other two men on trial before a jury are Jonas Castor, 26, Stevenson Choute, 24. They are charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of discharging a firearm.
The drive-by shooting took place Aug. 2, 2021. Some of the victims were outside an apartment building on Perras Blvd., near 53rd Ave., and others were inside seated near the patio window of a basement apartment.
Two vehicles passed by just before 7 p.m. and 26 shots were fired. The bullets struck people both outside and inside the basement apartment. The men killed in the shooting were Jerry Willer Jean-Baptiste, 29, Jafferson (Soldier) Syla, 29, and Molière Dantes, 63.
On Monday, prosecutor Louis Bouthillier continued his cross-examination of Domerçant-Barosy by going over evidence found on a cellphone seized in the Montreal police investigation. It included a video of Domerçant-Barosy’s hand sporting a blue glove while handling a 9-mm pistol, turning it back and forth until the barrel was pointed directly at the lens of the phone’s camera.
Domerçant-Barosy said the pistol never worked and that he recorded the video to send a message to the person who sold it to him, in November 2020, saying he planned to return it.
Domerçant-Barosy said he decided to buy a firearm because he had been robbed while he was selling cannabis to three men. He said the trio stole 28 grams of pot, which was worth about $150 to him.
“So you bought a firearm because you were robbed of $150?” Bouthillier asked during the exchange.
“If you take it like that, yes,” the accused replied.
Bouthillier asked a series of questions about another firearm Domerçant-Barosy purchased after the 9-mm pistol failed to work. He admitted he purchased a .380 calibre automatic firearm for $4,500. It was the same firearm he was carrying when the fatal shooting took place.
Domerçant-Barosy said he brought it with him to drug deals when he didn’t know the people he was selling to.
“Between November (2020) and (the day of the triple homicide), how many times did you bring it (to drug deals)?” the prosecutor asked.
The accused was vague: “There were times when it was loaded,” Domerçant-Barosy said. “By memory sometimes it was loaded … most of the time.”
When he began testifying last week, Domerçant-Barosy said that on the day in question, he showed up for a pot deal armed with the automatic weapon because he didn’t know the people he was dealing with. He said the two men he ended up selling to asked him “to scare” someone with the firearm. He said he agreed with the request because he considered the men to be future clients. He also said that when he approached the apartment building where the shooting occurred, he heard the sound of gunfire and figured he and his friend, Marlon Villa-Guzman, 28, the driver of the vehicle, were being fired upon. He told the jury his reflex was to fire back.
Villa-Guzman is serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the shooting. He testified for the prosecution early in the trial. His version of what happened differed significantly from that of Domerçant-Barosy. For example, Villa-Guzman said he didn’t know Domerçant-Barosy was armed as they drove past the apartment building. He said Domerçant-Barosy pulled the firearm out of a glove compartment before he opened fire.
On Monday, Domerçant-Barosy said Villa-Guzman knew all along that he was carrying the automatic weapon and that he kept it on his thigh as they headed toward the apartment building on Perras Blvd.
Domerçant-Barosy said on Monday that his former friend lied when he testified. He also said he was “surprised” when he learned Villa-Guzman decided to be a witness for the prosecution.
“Did you send him a letter, a letter offering (Villa-Guzman) $10,000 to change his testimony?” Bouthillier asked.
The accused denied sending the letter and the prosecutor asked him to read the letter.
Superior Court Justice Alexandre Boucher, the presiding judge in the trial, told the jury that since the letter has not been entered into evidence, they should not take it into consideration when they deliberate.