The man who helped hit man Frédérick Silva automatically received a life sentence when he was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Giovanni Presta, the man who helped hit man Frédérick Silva kill an associate of the Hells Angels in St-Léonard nearly four years ago, was found guilty of first-degree murder at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday.
Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard said the Crown presented enough evidence to prove that Presta manufactured a firearm and silencers used to kill Sébastien Beauchamp on Dec. 20, 2018, helped Silva track Beauchamp in the days leading up to the murder and drove Silva to the hit.
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Silva killed Beauchamp by shooting him several times while he was at a gas station in St-Léonard.
The murder victim was once a member of the Rockers, a Hells Angels support club that did most of the dirty work for the biker gang during Quebec’s bloody biker gang war between 1994 and 2002. More than 160 people were killed during the conflict.
Blanchard said in his decision that it was very clear Presta was the person who drove the Chevy Impala that dropped Silva off near the gas station. Evidence included footage from security cameras that recorded Presta cleaning the Impala at a Petro-Canada gas station after the murder.
Silva was found guilty of Beauchamp’s murder before Presta’s case went to trial. He was also found guilty of murdering three other men. Silva has since decided to co-operate with the Sûreté du Québec and the Montreal police in a major investigation into organized crime.
Presta automatically received a life sentence on Thursday with a period of parole ineligibility set at 25 years.
pcherry@postmedia.com
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