Trial of Marc-André Grenon | A verdict after less than an hour of deliberation

After less than an hour of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict in the trial of Marc-André Grenon for the murder of Guylaine Potvin.

This was announced by Superior Court Judge François Huot in the afternoon.

The verdict will be announced around 5 p.m., time for the victim’s family to return to the Chicoutimi courthouse.

The jury was sequestered at the end of the day on Monday, but the judge’s instructions continued throughout the morning on Tuesday, so that it did not begin its deliberations until after dinner time.

Marc-André Grenon is accused of having killed Guylaine Potvin on the night of April 28, 2000, in Jonquière, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, a case which caused a lot of noise in the region at the time. The accused admitted during the trial to having caused the death of the young woman by the use of force, but continues to plead not guilty to the charge of serious sexual assault against him.

Another trial to come

Since the sequestration of the jury, it is once again possible to discuss certain facts linked to this case and of which its members are unaware, including the other accusations against Marc-André Grenon.

Because, in addition to the murder of Guylaine Potvin, the 49-year-old man is also accused of having sexually assaulted and left for dead another young woman in the Sainte-Foy district, in Quebec, barely two months later.

This last crime has already been mentioned by the media, the victim even having testified under cover of anonymity since his identity is protected by the court, but it was no longer possible to mention it since the opening of the trial in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.

Indeed, as the cases are judged separately, it became essential from the start of the hearings at the courthouse in Chicoutimi that the selected jurors were not aware of the second case so as not to color their opinion.

It was close

At the time of their selection, several candidates were thus excluded after being questioned by the responsible judge, François Huot, on their knowledge of the Quebec affair.

Around fifty candidates had to parade before the magistrate before the latter was finally able to constitute a jury of 14 people.

And on at least one occasion, despite many precautions, both on the part of the prosecution and the defense, this second affair, the existence of which they had to continue to ignore, almost came to light.

During the testimony of forensic biology expert Caroline Paquette, a document filed as evidence and distributed to the jury stipulated that she had been brought in to work on the “Bélier project”. However, in police jargon, the term “project” designates a case where several investigations are grouped together.

The jurors were quickly taken out of the room and then Judge Huot took care to tear out the pages from each of their copies where this information was mentioned one by one before a redacted version was given to them.

When they were sequestered for their deliberations on Monday, the jurors were still unaware that Marc-André Grenon would eventually have a second trial.

Note that he benefits from the presumption of innocence in this second case, the trial having not yet started. The testimony of the victim and other witnesses having also not yet been presented to the court, they could be contested.