Jury on sixth day of deliberations in musician’s second murder trial

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The jury that evidence heard in musician Raymond Henry Muller’s second murder trial emerged from its sixth day of deliberations at the Montreal courthouse with a question concerning the accused’s testimony.

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Muller, 55, is undergoing his second trial for the death of fellow musician Cédric Gagnon, a man who disappeared on July 4, 2018.

The Crown’s theory in the case is that Muller killed Gagnon on that day inside a very messy second-floor apartment on Bernard St. E. in Mile End where Muller lived. The accused, Gagnon and other musicians also used the apartment to practice together on a regular basis. Muller is alleged to have dismembered Gagnon’s body inside the apartment and discarded the remains in three nearby trash bins.

Muller is charged with first-degree murder and with interference with human remains. This is his second trial of him because a different jury was unable to reach a verdict in his first trial last year, even though he confessed to the homicide in writing and while giving a detailed statement to police that was recorded on video.

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On Tuesday, the second jury asked Superior Court Justice Lyne Décarie if she could refer them to specific points in Muller’s testimony to pinpoint when he testified about five specific subjects, including his attempted suicide. The judge told the jury to listen to recordings of all of Muller’s testimony — the equivalent of two full court days — but noted they are allowed to fast forward through them.

The first trial ended in a mistrial, on May 6, 2021, after the jury in that trial could not reach a verdict. Following seven days of deliberations, the jury sent Décarie an emphatic note saying it was impossible for them to reach a consensus. It was the jury’s third note about the impasse, and Décarie decided to declare the mistrial.

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Two things the juries have had to grapple with in both trials is how Gagnon’s remains were never found and there was evidence he was suicidal before he disappeared. Muller and Gagnon knew each other for years, but according to witnesses who testified during the first trial, the two men were not getting along during the summer of 2018.

The reference to Muller’s attempted suicide involves the day he became a suspect in Gagnon’s death. On Aug. 31, 2018, almost two months after Gagnon disappeared, Sean Jones, a fellow musician and the person who was renting the apartment, went inside it with three other people. They found Muller inside the bathroom. It was apparent he had tried to end his own life from him. He was sitting inside a bathtub, and the bathroom floor was covered in blood and excrement.

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By that time, the Montreal police had been attempting to locate Gagnon for about a week.

Jones called 911, and several Montreal police officers quickly showed up to the apartment on Bernard St. E. A few of the officers talked to Muller, and while one looked for his medicare card, the officer found a spiral notebook on top of the stove in the kitchen. The notebook was left open on a page that contained the start of a handwritten note. The police officer who found it quickly realized he was reading a suicide note and Muller’s confession to having killed Gagnon.

Muller was taken to a hospital to be treated for lacerations to his arms. While he was recovering, he gave a videotaped statement in which he confessed to killing Gagnon.

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In both the note and the recorded interrogation, müller said he killed Gagnon by striking him on the forehead a few times with a bass guitar while he was sleeping. But during his first trial, Muller testified in his defense of him and described what the police found in the spiral notebook as a “murder ballad.”

“This was my whole problem with my (police interrogation) and in my letter. I couldn’t come up with a motive (for Gagnon’s death),” Muller said during the first trial. “There’s no reason I can think of to give (the police officer who interrogated him). It’s not my forte.”

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