Witness tells St-Léonard involuntary manslaughter trial that she was an involuntary part of the robbery

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Kim Savard Pichette did not want to be inside a courtroom at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday and made it known to everyone.

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The 29-year-old woman said she was unintentionally part of the robbery of a drug dealer in St-Léonard that resulted in the deaths of two men on December 24, 2018. But she was called as a prosecution witness to testify at trial. trial of Fodil Abderhamane Lakehal, 24, the man charged with robbery and two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Davis Arbor, 38, and Marc Hilary Dasilma, 41.

They were both killed on the 10th floor of an apartment building on Jean-Talon St. E. Crown’s theory in the case is that Arbor was shot while Lakehal and other men were trying to steal drugs and cash and that Dasilma received a shooting friends. fire. Another part of Crown’s theory is that Savard Pichette was used to drive the three men into the building’s main lobby and to have Arbor open the door to their apartment.

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Superior Court Judge Daniel Royer asked the jury hearing the trial not to read anything about how Savard Pichette was escorted into the courtroom by two guards from the provincial prison. And when the court clerk asked her how she earned a living while taking the oath, she replied, “Well, now I’m in detention.”

While answering questions from prosecutor Matthew Ferguson, Savard Pichette explained that he is serving a two-year sentence he received after pleading guilty to burglary with the aim of committing armed robbery, a charge brought against him for his role in the robbery.

“It seems that I am obligated to testify in all of this. I’m here today, but I don’t agree with this, ”Savard Pichette said in the courtroom. “It scares me. I recently returned to society, but it was I who decided to go back to jail because I couldn’t live in a rehab home. So, I went back to jail to serve my entire sentence. I’m fed up. I don’t want to be involved in all this. “

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Savard Pichette said she began dating another man accused in the case two months before the robbery took place.

She also said Dasilma and Lakehal went to her home, hours before the robbery took place that morning, and got high and drunk while she and her boyfriend slept. When they woke up, she said, her boyfriend spoke to Dasilma and Lakehal. She told the jury that while it was obvious they planned the robbery at the time, she was “busy with other things.”

Crown’s theory is that Savard Pichette was used as a kind of Trojan horse to reassure Arbor and have him open the door for a young woman.

“But there was a Santa Claus (covering) the peephole. So at the bottom of things, it was there for nothing. I called and left, ”Savard Pichette said, adding that she did not witness what happened next. He also said that it was easy to get in through the front door from the lobby because someone leaving the building with a “food buffet” needed his help.

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“Why did you go there?” Ferguson asked bluntly at one point.

“I don’t know. Maybe I did it for love. I was tired. I was tired of my life, of everything that was happening to me,” she said. “My life was heavy at the time and I made bad decisions.”

Later, while being questioned by defense attorney Richard Tawil, the witness was asked if she knew that an armed robbery was taking place when she knocked on Arbor’s door.

“They had talked about it, but did he really know what was going to happen inside the apartment? Would they really do it? ” she asked.

The trial will resume on Friday.

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