‘I didn’t kill anyone,’ said co-accused in Fontaine slaying as Crown closes case
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/01/2019 (1928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
After six days of testimony, Crown prosecutors closed their case against two men accused of manslaughter in the death of Jeanenne Fontaine.
The 29-year-old mother, a cousin of slain teenager Tina Fontaine, was shot in the back of the head and left inside her burning Aberdeen Avenue home on the morning of March 14, 2017. Christopher Matthew Brass and Jason Michael Meilleur have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, and a jury of seven men and five women has now heard all of the prosecution’s evidence against them.
Before the case was adjourned until Wednesday morning, jurors finished watching a 4.5-hour video-recorded interview Meilleur had with Winnipeg Police Service homicide investigators in May 2017. At the end of the interview, WPS Det. Sgt. Jarett Reid told Meilleur he wasn’t being charged in Fontaine’s death but that the investigation would continue. Later, the Crown’s office did authorize homicide charges and Meilleur was arrested and charged with manslaughter a few days after his interview with Reid.
“This is bulls—,” Meilleur told officers upon his arrest for manslaughter, according to Reid’s notes the officer shared with the jury Monday.
“I didn’t take anyone there to kill her. I didn’t kill anyone, either,” Meilleur said, according to Reid’s testimony. Reid testified Meilleur said he didn’t set any fires or intend for anyone to get hurt at Fontaine’s home. He’d gone to the small bungalow at 457 Aberdeen Avenue to talk to Fontaine’s boyfriend to “square up” a drug debt, he said. Fontaine’s boyfriend, admitted drug dealer Monte Bull, owed Meilleur’s girlfriend some meth after she’d been sold fake drugs from his traphouse, Meilleur told police. He said Brass and Malcolm Mitchell followed him to 457 Aberdeen that morning, but that he’d already run from the house by the time he heard a gunshot.
“I ran for my life, nothing more, nothing less,” Meilleur told Reid upon his arrest for manslaughter.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Gerald Chartier reminded jurors they can’t use Meilleur’s police statement against his co-accused, Brass. The jury was told Mitchell was responsible for shooting Fontaine but that he’s not part of this trial.
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During the video-recorded interview, after he was told he wasn’t being charged in the homicide, Meilleur told police Fontaine’s death was “bulls—.”
“An innocent girl who had nothing to do except say hi to somebody lost her life,” Meilleur said. “In my eyes, that’s bulls—.”
Jurors also heard about Meilleur’s request to be placed in protective custody after talking to police. Det. Sgt. Jeff Stalker of the police service’s secure operations unit testified there wasn’t much police could do to protect him because he was already in custody on breach charges when the request was made. Stalker said he spoke to corrections officials to ensure Meilleur was separated from his co-accused, but after Meilleur was charged with manslaughter, he said there was nothing the unit could do for him.
“You don’t put someone into witness protection when they’re also an accused for the same offence,” Stalker said.
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Katie May
Reporter
Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.
