McGill Ghetto murder trial: ‘I was dealing with all sorts of evil'

Montreal Gazette

19 hours ago

By
François Pelletier, the man on trial for the murder of 24-year-old Romane Bonnier, ran out of time Friday before he could tell the jury hearing his case about the day of the brutal slaying in the McGill Ghetto more than three years ago.
Friday was Pelletier's third day on the witness stand in a first-degree murder trial at the Montreal courthouse, where the 39-year-old is acting as his own lawyer. His testimony has been confusing, full of unfinished thoughts and asides on pop culture references he appears to be fixated on. When he brought up Brave New World, the book by Aldous Huxley, yet again late Friday afternoon, Superior Court Justice François Dadour abruptly called it a day.
The judge noted he had asked the jury to stay an extra 45 minutes with the hope Pelletier would reach the end of his testimony in principle before the weekend.
Instead, Pelletier is expected to testify on Monday about Oct. 19, 2021, the day he stabbed Bonnier 26 times in front of several stunned witnesses. He will then be cross-examined by either prosecutor Louis Bouthillier or prosecutor Marianna Ferraro.
The Crown's theory of the case is earlier in 2021, Pelletier met Bonnier after she placed an ad seeking a roommate to share the apartment she was already living in, and they had a brief relationship after he moved in. It did not end well and, on Oct. 19, 2021, he killed the woman who dreamed of being an actor on Broadway.
The jury has heard evidence Bonnier put a quick end to the relationship and, on Sept. 1, 2021, Pelletier moved out of the apartment as had already been planned.
On Friday, Pelletier said September was difficult for him as he rented a room to start, but he couldn't take the noise there and ended up moving in with a friend on Oct. 1.
'In late September, I'm still trying to figure (the breakup) out,' he said, adding he was having nightmares in which he killed Bonnier. 'I was dealing with all sorts of evil.
'Towards the end, I was trying to tell (Bonnier) that I was not well.'
Pelletier said Bonnier ignored many text messages he sent to her and she asked him to 'stop harassing her' after he met her mother and asked her to tell Bonnier to read his messages.
'She finally did agree to give me a last 30 minutes in her presence. I was like, that sounds like a fair deal, right,' Pelletier told the jury. 'We actually did meet, on Oct. 11, (2021) on McGill (University's) campus. At that point, I was in a rather rough shape, but I showed up. I had been requesting this meeting and I was getting it. At that point, I was deeply immersed into this different interpretation of things. I had been cooking in it for weeks now.'
Pelletier said he and Bonnier sat on a bench for the conversation and it was clear 'Romane had moved on.'
'She was not just like a girl to me, she was like my twin flame,' he said. 'I was thinking about her all the time.'
Before he described the meeting at the university campus, he told the jury about a scene from the movie Dude, Where's My Car?, a goofball comedy starring actor Ashton Kutcher. Pelletier said he compared his inability to communicate with Bonnier, through text messages, to a scene in the movie where 'these two idiots' are unable to understand each other.
'So there we were. I didn't get any of my answers, no explanation,' Pelletier said. 'I was not expecting Romane to tell me what I wanted to hear or anything specific. I just wanted her to tell me ... I don't know exactly what I wanted her to tell me.
'I chose not to ask her at all (about their relationship). We talked about a bunch of stuff. Essentially, it was just back and forth and then I went away from there.'
Pelletier said before they parted ways that day he gave Bonnier a hug.
'It was like hugging a corpse, really,' he said. 'I was in bad shape already and that (hug) was bad.'
Pelletier added the last words Bonnier told him before she walked away was: 'Have fun.'