MONTREAL – Three men convicted of taking part in a brazen and reckless shooting in Old Montreal that left two men dead and two others injured appeared drained as they learned of the guilty verdicts on Friday.

The accused — Kyle Gabriel, 30, Carey Isaac Regis, 45, and Terrell Lloyd Smith, 31 — were found guilty, at the Montreal courthouse, of the first-degree murder and attempted murder charges they were charged with in 2010.

On March 18 that year, two gunmen walked into the Flawnego clothing boutique on St-Jacques St. and opened fire. The store, owned by Cheryl Bailey, a former partner of street gang leader Ducarme Joseph, was under renovation at the time. Alain Gagnon, an electrician who was working inside the boutique, survived life-threatening injuries. Jean Gaston, 60, Joseph’s uncle and the manager of the boutique, was killed in the shooting even though he likely had nothing to do with the apparent motive behind it.

More than 60 shots were fired within seconds as the two gunmen filled the store with bullets and chased one victim, Frédéric Louis, as he tried to protect himself by hiding in a bathroom. Peter Christopoulos, 27, described by police as Joseph’s bodyguard and driver, was killed in the shooting. Louis, the other man wounded in the hail of gunfire, was also believed to have been acting as Joseph’s bodyguard. He denied this during the trial while testifying for the Crown, but his denials were openly mocked by the defence lawyers in the case.

According to the Crown’s theory during the seven-month long trial, Gabriel and Smith acted as the gunmen, while Regis acted as the getaway driver. Joseph, 45, was believed by police to have been the intended victim in the shooting, but he escaped unharmed by quickly exiting through a back door.

While the motive wasn’t part of the Crown’s case, police testifying in other unrelated cases have said on the record they are convinced Joseph was the person who was supposed to have been killed that day. Police sources also said that the motive is believed to somehow involve retaliation for the murder of Nick “Ritz” Rizzuto, the elder son of Vito Rizzuto, who was fatally shot in December 2009.

Nick Rizzuto, a business associate of construction magnate Tony Magi, was killed near Magi’s former offices on Upper Lachine Rd. Shortly after Joseph escaped the shooting at the Flawnego boutique, he went to Magi’s offices and was arrested for violating a conditional release, and was found to be carrying a series of notes. One appeared to be a memo to himself reminding him to ask someone if there were “other people to eliminate.”

Also among the notes was a reference to “Le Vieux” an apparent reference to Nicolo (Zio Cola) Rizzuto, the patriarch of the Mafia clan. Nicolo Rizzuto, the father of Vito Rizzuto, was often referred to as “the old man” in underworld circles. Next to the reference to “Le Vieux” was another note that read “and another guy R who is the priority.” Nicolo Rizzuto was later killed in his home in northern Montreal and Vito Rizzuto, who was serving a 10-year sentence in the U.S. in 2010, died last year of natural causes.

While a copy of the notes found on Joseph were deposited as evidence, the Crown’s case focused more on evidence related to the shooting itself. That included DNA, witness accounts and footage from surveillance cameras that recorded the path the two gunmen took after the shooting.

Regis, the man who appeared to have the least amount of evidence against him in the case, smiled as he entered the prisoners dock before the verdict was read. He shared a joke with his lawyer, Franco Schiro, before sitting down. Regis then turned to Gabriel and the two men shared a private joke that caused both to laugh out loud. Smith looked around the crowded courtroom, apparently looking for a familiar face, and appeared to be in a less jovial mood. All signs of energy appeared to drain away from Smith’s face as the verdicts were read out.

The jury was in its ninth day of deliberation when it reached its verdicts. Superior Court Justice Carol Cohen thanked the members of the jury for their “incredible service.” The 12 jurors began hearing evidence on Sept. 25 and the trial lasted much longer than expected. The Crown called a total of 57 witnesses between Sept. 25 and March 11, and the defence called 39 witnesses between March 12 and March 24. Joseph was not called as a Crown witness. The defence tried to subpoena Joseph, but he was nowhere to be found.

Cohen sentenced the three men to the automatic life sentences that accompany first-degree murder convictions. They will only become eligible for full parole after they serve 25 years behind bars. Cohen described the murders as “heinous” and noted the shooting was carried out in the middle of the day in a public place.

“We are satisfied. I think that justice was rendered,” said Véronique Beauchamp, who prosecuted the case along with Louis Bouthillier. “It was a long trial. It was hard for the families of the victims, and by that I (especially) mean (the father of Peter) Christopoulos who was here for the whole trial.”

“It involved proof that was circumstantial, not direct proof. It is more difficult the show the proof in such a case. You have to put all of the elements together, like a puzzle, and assemble all of the pieces to show the overall picture.”

George Calaritis, the lawyer who represented Gabriel, and Schiro, the attorney for Regis, said they were very surprised by the verdicts.

“We are surprised for several reasons, but the jury made its decision. We clearly have a mandate to proceed with an appeal,” Schiro said. “The proof wasn’t beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t know if the members of the jury understand what that means. It is clear the defence did all it could to represent our clients.”

Calaritis also said “there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Mr. Kyle Gabriel would go ahead with an appeal.” Marion Burelle, the lawyer who represented Smith, had no comment.

The case returns to court on May 23 for a sentence hearing on the attempted murder convictions. Bouthillier told Cohen that victim impact statements might be read into the court record as part of the sentence hearing.

pcherry@montrealgazette.com

MONTREAL — A request for an appeal has been filed in the trial that ended last month in the first-degree murder convictions of three men for their role in a shooting in Old Montreal that left two people dead.

Defence lawyer Franco Schiro filed the request with the Quebec Court of Appeal on Tuesday on behalf of two of the accused, Carey Isaac Regis, 45, and Terell Lloyd Smith, 32. They, along with Kyle Gabriel, 30, were convicted by a jury on May 2, of carrying out the shooting, in which at least 60 shots were fired inside the Flawnego clothing boutique in March 2010.

Peter Christopoulos, 27, and Jean Gaston, 60, were killed in the hail of bullets. Two other men were injured.

Christopoulos was acting as a bodyguard to street gang leader Ducarme Joseph at the time. Joseph owned the boutique and probably was the intended target of the shooting, police surmised. Gaston, Joseph’s uncle, was an employee of the boutique.

The jury in the trial, which lasted more than seven months, heard circumstantial evidence that Gabriel and Smith shot up the boutique and Regis acted as the getaway driver.

Schiro based his request for an appeal on several points, including arguments that the trial should have been aborted at different points because of issues involving the jury.

The most serious appears to be Schiro’s assertion that the presiding judge, Superior Court Justice Carol Cohen, erred by not removing two members of the jury who allegedly violated their jury oath by reading media coverage of the murders during the trial. Jurors in all Canadian trials are instructed to not read, listen or watch any media coverage of the case they are acting as judges in.

The issue came up during the trial when one juror alleged two others were looking up articles about the shooting on their smartphones inside their jury room during a break.

Schiro also argues that the jury should have never been allowed to listen to a wiretapped conversation between Smith and his girlfriend, because it provided evidence of Smith’s criminal past.

Smith called his girlfriend after being interrogated following his arrest. During the conversation, he told her that he had ruined his life and was worried he had also ruined hers. But he also revealed that he was friends with Dave Lockhart, a man who had been stabbed to death in Montreal in 2010. Lockhart was defending a friend, who was involved in a dispute over a marijuana deal, when he was stabbed. In the conversation, Smith described Lockhart as a good person when compared with some of the other people he hung out with.

pcherry@montrealgazette.com

MONTREAL — More than 200 police officers were involved in 21 search warrants and raids in the Mauricie region on Wednesday morning breaking up a biker gang involved in drug dealing, conspiracy and gangsterism.

The raids, primarily in Shawinigan, netted a total of 24 arrests, men and women, said Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Hugo Fournier. Some of the arrests were in Trois-Rivières, Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel and one in Montreal.

The investigation that led to these raids has been ongoing for several months, Fournier said.

“We seized cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana, several vehicles, cash and weapons,” he added. Those arrested will appear before a judge Wednesday afternoon on charges of drug trafficking, gangsterism and conspiracy.

asutherland@montrealgazette.com

Police say they have broken up a criminal gang that was selling weapons in Montreal and the South Shore.

On Tuesday, police arrested four men and one woman and raided seven locations where illegally stored arms were found, police said in a press release on Wednesday.

About 50 officers from several police forces, including the Sûreté du Québec and Montreal police, took part in the operation.

Arrested were: Anthony Zaccaria, 22; Danick Bécotte, 28; Stéphane Côté, 30; Lisa Archambault, 21; and Yohan Leduc, 37.

They were arraigned Wednesday at courthouses in Montreal, Longueuil and St-Hyacinthe, police said.

The accused face several charges, including arms trafficking and unauthorized possession of a firearm, police said.

The Sûreté du Québec arrested Hells Angels biker Sylvain Tétreault on Thursday night as part of Operation SharQc.

Tétreault, 46, has been at large for over five years and is a member of the south chapter of the Hells Angels. Tétreault became a prospect for the Hells Angels in 2001 during his six-year sentence for the attempted murder of a member of a rival gang in 1998.

Tétreault will be arraigned in Montreal on Friday morning at the Gouin Judicial Services Centre.

This article was originally published on July 18, 2013.

No restaurant, especially one located on a busy downtown street, can
reasonably be expected to control who dines there. But it’s what happens
after some of Restaurant Cavalli‘s
clients show up at the popular eatery on Peel St. that prompted the
Montreal police to have its owners summoned on Wednesday before the
Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux that could result in the
revocation of its liquor permit.

An in camera (closed to the public) conference was held Wednesday at the
Montreal courthouse so lawyers can prepare for a future hearing that
will probably be public. Another such conference was scheduled for
Thursday.

Numbered company 4072430 Canada Inc. is the holder of Cavalli‘s
liquor permit. It has been summoned to appear before the board as part
of “an investigation to determine if it has been lacking in its legal
obligations” as a holder of a permit.

The concerns of the Montreal police are listed in a notice the Régie issued to Restaurant Cavalli on June 14.

It notes the presence of several members of the Mafia, biker gangs and
street gangs between Oct. 8, 2010, and December 6, 2011. (A police
source recently told The Gazette that reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto was
seen dining at Cavalli as recently as May).

More importantly, the Montreal police also allege the restaurant has
been the scene of several serious acts of violence, sometimes involving
known gangsters, between May 12, 2006, when a client was beaten with a
chair, to Dec. 14, 2012, when police broke up a fight between four men.
During the most recent incident, bottles were thrown at two of the
victims and “one of (Cavalli‘s)
security guards interfered with the work of a police officer.” The
summons alleges the restaurant’s staff has been “unco-operative” with
the police on a few occasions.

Details concerning one of the incidents of violence listed in the
summons were made public during a court hearing related to Project
Colisée, a large-scale police investigation of the Mafia in Montreal. On
Aug. 23, 2006, Francesco Del Balso, a young leader in the Rizzuto
organization, was recorded as he spoke on a cellphone to one of his
associates. Del Balso was offended that he was grabbed by the throat by
Charles Huneault, a man tied to the Hells Angels, while they were at the
restaurant. Shots were fired into Huneault’s Porsche, parked outside Cavalli,
and within minutes the police had the area surrounded. Del Balso, who
sounded inebriated as he spoke to his friend, was unable to leave the
area because of the police investigation. He said he was willing to fire
off a gun in front of the police.

“You want me to show you what the f–k? I’m able to do it in front of
these f–kin’ cops. I’ll shoot them all,” Del Balso said as his friend
pleaded with him to calm down.

The Montreal police requested the hearing on April 1, 2010, and updated
their request last year. The summons also notes that the Montreal police
met with the restaurant’s manager on June 16, 2011, to discuss the
problems caused by “street gangs and organized crime.”

In the five months that followed, its officers noted the presence of street gang members at Cavalli on six different dates, including on Oct. 6, 2011, when “11 individuals related to street gangs” were spotted inside.

pcherry@montrealgazette.com

Police raided three apartments at 4:30 a.m. in Vieux-Longueuil Wednesday as part of an investigation into drug trafficking.

Two of the apartments were on de l’Église St. and one was on Front St. The raids were carried out by 20 officers including the canine unit and the technical squad, said Longueuil police spokesperson Mark David.

The investigation that sparked these busts began in July and once the team had enough evidence, they got three search warrants.

Three men were arrested, ages 57, 60 and 67. The three are not linked to organized crime or any street gangs, David said, and mostly sold cocaine.

asutherland@montrealgazette.com

The drug trafficking trial of three men who pulled off a daring escape from a penitentiary near Quebec City in June, only to be recaptured days later, has entered its final stage.

The three men, Serge Pomerleau, 50, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Yves Denis, 35, escaped from the Quebec Detention Centre, commonly referred to as Orsainville, on June 7 by using a helicopter despite the fact officials at the jail knew the trio were plotting it months beforehand, in March. They were found several days later hiding in a rented condominium in Old Montreal.

The three men were first arrested in 2010 in Operation Ecrevisse, a lengthy investigation by the Sûreté du Québec into drug trafficking and a long series of violent acts, including homicides, in the Abitibi region and elsewhere. More than 50 people were arrested in Operation Ecrevisse but four men — the trio who escaped in June and a man named Thierry Beland — were singled out as alleged leaders of the many drug traffickers within the network and their cases were transferred from a courthouse in Val d’Or to Quebec City. When the men arrived at the detention centre near Quebec City in March, authorities there already had information that they would try to escape and that a helicopter would likely be used to carry it out.

The trio escaped while their trial before a jury was well underway. When they were recaptured two weeks later the trial resumed but Beland’s case was severed from the others and returned to the Val d’Or courthouse to be heard at a later date.

The trio are alleged to have supplied drugs like cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines to many parts of the Abitibi region and, according to evidence heard during the trial, were connected to the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang. Pomerleau, the alleged leader of the entire network, faces 28 charges in all in the drug trafficking trial including conspiracy, four counts of drug trafficking and several counts related to firearms. Denis faces 19 charges in the Quebec City case and Lefebvre faces 19.

Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne, the presiding judge in the trial, ended the day Friday by sequestering the jury and informing them he would resume his final instructions Saturday morning before sending them off to deliberate. The jury will continue to be sequestered until they reach a verdict on the many charges.

If they are convicted, the three men face the possibility of having to serve very long sentences. One man arrested in Operation Ecrevisse, as the leader of one of three drug trafficking cells that operated in the Abitibi region, pleaded guilty to a series of charges in 2011 and received a 10-year prison sentence. He has since become a witness for the prosecution. Another leader of one of the drug trafficking cells, Carlo Placidi, 60, a close friend of Pomerleau’s, received the equivalent of a 12-year prison term in January.

The three men also face charges related to the escape in a separate case that is not before the jury. All three men are also charged with murder in the deaths of Benoit Denis and Johnny Coutu. Denis was killed in a town near Joliette in May 2010, and Coutu was killed in Laval during the summer of 2009. The trial for both murders is scheduled to be heard at the Montreal courthouse, over the course of five months, beginning in January 2016.

pcherry@montrealgazette.com