The case against a Quebec accused of having killed three people with his truck in a Quebec eastern community is simple, prosecutor Jérôme Simard said on Friday.
“There will be no big twists and turns,” he said in his declaration of opening in the Steeve Gagnon trial, who faces three first degree murder and two chiefs of attempted murder.
Gagnon, 40, pleaded not guilty to all accusations.
The accusation tried to prove that on March 13, 2023, Gagnon led his truck to the heart of Amqui, in Quebec, along the highway 132, accelerated on the sidewalk and pruned a dozen people before turning into a local provincial police station. The city is approximately 350 kilometers northeast of Quebec.
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Three men died: Gérald Charest, 65 ,, Jean Lafrenière, 73, and Simon-Guillame Bourget, 41 years old. Nine other people were injured.
Simard told the jury that the crown would present evidence of the accused’s financial problems and a video recording that Gagnon made two days before the collision with the pedestrians in which he declared his intention to hit people with his truck.
The trial should last up to eight weeks and the crown intends to call around 50 witnesses.
Earlier Friday, the Quebec Higher Judge, Louis Dionne, told the jurors that their responsibility was to hear all the evidence presented before them, and not to launch their own investigation. “You are not lawyers or investigators,” said Dionne to the jurors, asking them to strictly respect the evidence presented in court.
Fourteen jurors hear evidence, but only 12 will be chosen to deliberate.
Quebec provincial police officer, Geneviève Gignac, was the first witness, telling how she was called during her stay to help, first to supervise the accused’s vehicle towing, then to help secure the crime scene.
The trial is heard in Rimouski, Quebec, northeast of the provincial capital.
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