Crown seeking 15-year sentence in manslaughter case

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This article was published 16/04/2019 (1829 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before she was shot dead in the Winnipeg drug house where her boyfriend sold methamphetamine, Jeanenne Fontaine dreamed of a better life.

“I need to find a new place to call home,” she wrote in her journal, under a list of goals that included regaining custody of her three children and getting into a treatment program.

The 29-year-old’s handwritten notes were filed in court Wednesday, as one of three men convicted of killing her was forced to reckon with a more complete picture of the life he took.

Jason Michael Meilleur faces prison time for manslaughter in Fontaine’s death.

Crown prosecutors are asking for a 15-year sentence, while his defence lawyer is seeking four years. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Gerald Chartier is expected to deliver his decision next month.

Meilleur and Christopher Matthew Brass were found guilty by a jury, who heard they showed up to Fontaine’s home at 457 Aberdeen Ave. on the morning of March 15, 2017, with a third man (Malcolm Mitchell) to settle a meth drug debt that may have been worth only $45.

Once inside, Mitchell shot Fontaine in the head with a gun handed to him by Brass. The house was then set on fire.

Although his defence lawyer argued otherwise, Meilleur went to the house knowing someone was going to get hurt, Crown prosecutor Michael Desautels told the judge. It was Meilleur’s girlfriend who was allegedly owed money after being sold fake drugs.

“He was all the way in with these guys and what they were up to,” Desautels said. “The bottom line is, Meilleur saw this as an opportunity to score meth.

“As tragic and pathetic as that is, Jeanenne Fontaine was killed that day because he needed to get high.”

Defence lawyer Theodore Mariash argued Wednesday, as he did throughout the trial earlier this year, Meilleur couldn’t have known what the other two men were going to do. Mariash said his client didn’t deserve the same sentence as Brass, who has been convicted of killing three people.

Brass received 15 years in January for Fontaine’s death. He’s already serving life sentences for two other murder convictions.

When asked if he wanted to say anything before he’s sentenced, Meilleur took exception to reporters watching him in court and asked if he could apologize to Fontaine’s family privately. He ultimately offered a public apology, with tears in his eyes.

“Nobody deserved to die,” he said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I also don’t think of her.”

Meilleur said if he had a time machine, he would have just stayed home that day, not picked up his phone, and gotten himself some help. “I truly am sorry.”

Fontaine’s mother, Lana Fontaine, and her brother, Chuck Fontaine, weren’t present for the sentencing hearing. Chuck testified during the trial he answered the door when the three men showed up and managed to escape as the home was being set ablaze.

“Jeanenne had a lot of people that loved her, she broke a lot of hearts, she had a lot of love for everyone,” her mother wrote in a victim-impact statement filed in court.

“I hate seeing what this has done to my son. He blames himself every day. He says he should’ve went back. I told him I would’ve been burying two children.”

Speaking to Meilleur in court as she read aloud her own statement, Melissa Stevenson said she was left reeling to have lost her longtime friend.

“All I could think about was $45 was what my friend’s life was valued at in Meilleur’s eyes,” she said. “I can give you that $45 if you can give me my friend back.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay