WARNING: This story accommodates graphic descriptions of intimate companion violence.
After months of abuse, threats, manipulation and management by her on once more, off once more companion, 24-year-old Marie “Mimi” Gabriel was executed.
She instructed 40-year-old Jean-Bruno “Berno” Fenelon — 16 years her senior, who began seeing her when she was 17 — to go away the south Ottawa residence she’d fled to with their two younger youngsters months earlier, with assist from social providers.
But it surely wasn’t working. She texted the man she was seeing that Fenelon wished to battle her, that he would not depart.
And she or he spoke to her closest pal Norlande Tassy by cellphone, who heard Gabriel’s final recognized utterance:
“Get the f–k out of my home!” she screamed. Then nothing. Tassy stayed on the road, however by no means heard Gabriel’s voice once more.
It was the morning of March 26, 2022. Gabriel was discovered deceased by police on the concrete flooring of her basement two days later, in a dried pool of her personal blood.
Fenelon poses for Ottawa police forensic identification officers after his arrest in March 2022. (Ottawa police/Ontario Superior Courtroom)
A protracted day of deliberating
Late Friday evening, in a darkened, near-empty courthouse, a jury of 9 girls and three males discovered Fenelon responsible of first-degree homicide after a trial that spanned six weeks in Ottawa’s Superior Courtroom.
Fenelon was sentenced by Justice Ian Carter to life in jail with out parole for 25 years, which occurs robotically when somebody is convicted of homicide within the first degree in Canada.
The jury accepted the proof that it was Fenelon who, in a jealous rage, struck Gabriel at the least twice within the head with a 30-pound dumbbell — nearly immediately deadly blows delivered as she was already mendacity battered on the ground.
It got here after Fenelon had struck her, dragged her and chased her round her basement — proof of which was discovered within the bloody footprints her naked ft left on the concrete.
The strikes with the dumbbell have been delivered with “extreme pressure;” the type often seen in automobile wrecks or falls from an awesome peak, Crown lawyer Dallas Mack stated in his closing remarks. They have been “clear indicators” of Fenelon’s intense hatred for Gabriel.
“This was private,” Mack stated.
A police officer heads out onto the ice at Petrie Island in March 2022 to retrieve considered one of Fenelon’s boots. Police carried out a search after GPS information on Fenelon’s cellphone led them to the realm. (Ottawa police/Ontario Superior Courtroom)
Disposed-of proof recovered by police
Afterward, Fenelon dumped his garments and boots, stained with Gabriel’s blood, at Petrie Island alongside the Ottawa River. Murder investigators adopted GPS breadcrumbs from Fenelon’s cellphone to the realm and searched it for days earlier than discovering them.
It was Fenelon who known as 911 to report discovering Gabriel’s physique two days after his assault, underneath the guise that he had found her physique for the primary time whereas making an attempt to drop off their youngsters.
With its responsible verdict, the jury rejected Toronto-based defence lawyer Ari Goldkind’s assertion in his closing remarks that the Crown hadn’t proved its case past an inexpensive doubt.
Goldkind had argued Fenelon had nothing to cover in regards to the “poisonous, horrible,” nature of his relationship with Gabriel, and that he repeatedly instructed investigators he had nothing to do with the crime and would not kill the mom of his youngsters.
He additionally stated it was inconceivable that an “Unbelievable Hulk” like Fenelon may escape a battle and not using a scratch.
Mother and father describe intense guilt
After the responsible verdict, as Gabriel’s household and buddies learn their sufferer influence statements, many within the courtroom cried, together with many of the jurors and murder detectives Man Seguin and Jennifer McLinton (who now works for an additional unit).
Gabriel’s mom, Fatou Gabriel, wrote that her guilt for not doing extra to guard her daughter “kills me day-after-day … pains me to my bones … retains me up each evening.”
She requested her daughter to come back residence “again and again, however as a result of she was afraid of Berno, she refused.”
Her father, Andy Stone, known as Fenelon a “woman-beating coward” who “ripped [Gabriel’s] character to shreds” even after murdering her. However he additionally described emotions of guilt.
“How can I even start to precise my regrets for not being the daddy she deserved? For not appearing in another way? He damage my little woman, and I did nothing. I let her down,” he instructed court docket.
After the sufferer influence statements, the Crown stated Gabriel was entitled to finish the connection and depart Fenelon, and known as intimate companion violence ‘a plague on our society.’ (Equipped by Andy Stone)
‘Mindless brutality’
Gabriel’s older brother, David Gabriel, instructed Fenelon that day after day, he checked out him within the prisoner’s dock and hoped to see “an oz of regret.”
“However these previous few weeks solely confirmed to me that you’re a sadistic sociopath, who laughed at my father when he testified. You loved seeing his ache.”
Her youthful brother, Ibn Stone, instructed Fenelon he “tortured” the household.
“You could have earned your house behind bars, stripped of freedom, and there’s no higher destiny for somebody who acted with such mindless brutality.”
‘It was the proper factor’
Outdoors the courthouse, simply earlier than midnight, the household was relieved.
“It was the proper factor,” Andy Stone stated. “Twelve respectable folks, respectable, respectable folks — they weren’t fooled. They did not imagine his lies. They did not imagine it was another person.”
And he had a message for women and girls.
“Should you’re with a man and he is aggressive verbally, bodily, run. Do not say you may forgive him and he will not do it once more, as a result of he’ll do it once more. Run.
“And fogeys, hearken to your youngsters. … Since you do not wish to be like me. I am standing right here speaking to you now, my daughter’s deceased. Full out. Deceased.”
Help is offered for these affected by intimate companion violence. You’ll find help providers and native sources in Canada by visiting this web site. In case your state of affairs is pressing, name 911.
