Lucas Gaudet’s mother: Killer got slap on wrist from justice system

Article content

The mother of Lucas Gaudet says she has mixed emotions after the youth who murdered her son received a five-year sentence in Youth Court last week.

Article content

The youth will serve nearly three years in a detention center, followed by two years in the community — a sentence that left Lynne Baudouy wanting.

“It’s bittersweet,” she told the Montreal Gazette on Monday. “I’m not OK with it. I would have preferred a longer sentence. But it was either we accept that sentence, a plea bargain, or we go to trial and risk him getting less time and a lesser sentence.

“What’s the point of being angry and resentful and pissed off at the whole world when it’s not going to do anything?”

The 16-year-old youth pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault for fatally stabbing Gaudet on Feb. 8 during a melee near St. Thomas High School in Pointe-Claire. Students from three West Island high schools were involved in the brawl.

Article content

Gaudet, a 16-year-old student at John Rennie High School, died in hospital two days after the stabbing.

Asked if justice had been done in this case, Baudouy replied: “Honestly, no, because five years is nothing. It’s a slap on the wrist.

“I know that on the news it said I was at peace with it. I’m not. I accept it. What else can I do? But I’m not OK with it.

“No amount of time will ever be enough,’” she added.

Baudouy hopes the youth understands the severity of his crime.

“I think he does because that’s one of the things I said in my victim impact statement (in court). I truly wish he becomes a parent so he can understand a sliver of the pain we went through. As parents, we don’t want any harm coming to our kids.”

The youth had no previous criminal record. Baudouy believes that he likely “factored into the sentence, and also that he was willing to plead guilty.”

Article content

Baudouy said she and her husband were aware of the plea deal, agreed to by the prosecutor and defense lawyer, prior to sentencing.

“They did (ask) us, do you accept this plea bargain? If we had said, ‘No’, then we would’ve gone to trial. The thing with a trial is he could have gotten a lesser sentence. So for him to actually plead guilty to murder two, that’s what we originally wanted because that’s the charge he got.”

The convicted murderer, who cannot be identified because he’s a minor, will serve his sentence in youth detention.

“It’s not really jail. It’s ‘juvie’ jail,” Baudouy said. “The goal is to rehabilitate them, not for them to become reoffenders. I’m hoping this was a wake-up call for him. And considering that he’s never had any prior convictions, I hope he has a hard time. I really do, honestly. I hope he has a hard three years.”

Article content

She said her son’s killer never expressed remorse to her for killing Lucas, who was stabbed in the back.

“It would have been nice with some kind of acknowledgment but I wasn’t expecting it,” she said.

She said the youth was “very stoic” in court. “No emotion, no reaction.”

Baudouy hopes that by offering her son’s murderer forgiveness, it will allow her and the Gaudet family to move on from this nightmare.

“It doesn’t do me any good holding anger and animosity because then I’m teaching my kids that you can’t be forgiving. In order for me to move on, in order for me to heal properly and to grieve properly, I have to get past this.”

She also knows the next year will be the most difficult for the Gaudet family.

“It’s still hard. The first of everything will be tough. It’s the first time we’re going on vacation without Lucas. His first hockey game was tough. His first birthday of him… ”

[email protected]