Mike on Crime

By Bruce Owen
Winnipeg Free Press

Relatives of Joël Labossière said Friday they are relieved that he and his pregnant wife Maggy did not die in vain — the family linked Joël and Maggy’s slayings to the arrest of Joël’s uncle, Jérôme Labossière, in connection with three other family murders.

The RCMP said there was no connection.

The Mounties arrested Labossière, 37, in a surprise takedown Thursday and charged him with plotting and taking part in the November 2005 murders of his parents and brother.

One officer threw a stun grenade into the cab of a black truck as others pulled Labossière out face down on the pavement. Hours later he was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his 78-year-old father Fernand, his 74-yearold mother Rita and his 44-year-old brother Rémi at their farmhouse near St. Leon.

He was also charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Also charged is Michel Marc Hince, 21, of Winnipeg. Jeremie Gerard Toupin, 22, of Lower Nicola, B.C., was arrested Wednesday by Kelowna RCMP and will be returned to Winnipeg. Both Toupin and Hince are from southwest Manitoba.

RCMP allege the three are responsible for going to the Labossière farm in the middle of the night on Nov. 26, 2005 and shooting Fernand, Rita and their son Rémi before setting the house on fire to obliterate any evidence.

RCMP refuse to discuss motive, but court documents filed over the past two years in an ongoing civil case indicate it was about the family’s $1.3-million estate.

Mounties also said the investigation is not over. “It’s still a very active investigation,” Sgt. Line Karpish said.

Defence lawyer Sheldon Pinx said Labossière was stunned by the arrest.

“Jérôme maintains his innocence and will wait for this matter to make its way through the justice system,” he said.

Pinx met with his client shortly after his arrest. Labossière is likely headed directly to Stony Mountain Penitentiary to continue serving a drug sentence. He had been out on parole.

The 29-month St. Leon investigation took on a heightened level two weeks ago with the execution-killings of Joël Labossière, 34, and his pregnant wife Maggy, 33, in their Winnipeg home overnight April 20. Joël was the grandson of Fernand and Rita. Their killings remain an open investigation, led by Winnipeg police.

At the time of his death, Joël was involved in a court battle with his uncle Jérôme over the estate and had recently taken out a protection order barring Jérôme from contacting him and his immediate family. Jérôme had appealed the order saying he was not a threat to anyone.

Karpish stressed the timing of the arrests for the St. Leon incident is not connected to the more recent killings. The Labossière family said they believe otherwise.

They say the killings of Joël and Maggy helped RCMP, and the Crown’s office, gather enough evidence to lay charges in the St. Leon homicides.

“We believe now that Joël did not die for nothing,” a spokesperson said. “He’s our hero.”

At the same time they lament that police could not do a better job of protecting Joël and Maggy especially with court evidence from Joel saying he feared Jérôme.

“I think that he’s an extremely violent and homicidal person… And whoever gets in his way, like he said, is going to get shot,” Joël said in a recorded conversation at the downtown Law Courts complex when applying for the protection order.

He applied for the order before Christmas when Jérôme was released from prison on day parole after serving 18 months of a six-year sentence for selling cocaine for the Hells Angels. Jérôme had been arrested for his role in giving drugs to a secret agent.

At the heart of the dispute between Joël and Jérôme was how Fernand, Rita and Rémi’s estate should be divided. The dispute is before the courts and centres on two wills.

Rémi created a will in August 2000 in which he designated nephews and nieces to receive the assets of his 690-acre farmland, house, machinery and other personal goods.

However, Jérôme claims his brother Rémi produced a new will in July 2005 that leaves all of Rémi’s property in trust for Jérôme’s 12-year-old son. The family spokesman said they know the two other accused as the families are all from the same part of the province and either grew up or worked together. Neither Hince or Toupin have criminal records.

Sources said Jérôme Labossière and his wife — Winnipeg elementary school vice-principal Claudette Grenier — have separated.