Jury finds Francis Normand guilty of manslaughter in the stabbing death of his mother

"There is no evidence that stabbing his mother was part of any delusional belief held by Mr. Normand. He testified that his mother was not part of his hallucinations and that those same hallucinations did not prompt him to commit violent acts."

A jury at the Montreal courthouse emerged from its fifth day of deliberations at the Montreal courthouse Friday afternoon and found a man guilty of manslaughter in the death of his mother.

Francis Normand, 25, was originally charged with second-degree murder after his mother Francine Roux was stabbed in their apartment on Gilford St. several times in January 2021.

Normand tried to present a defence that he was intoxicated when he stabbed his mother, but Superior Court Justice James Brunton ruled this option out. The jury was left to decide if Normand was either guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter.

According to a written decision Brunton delivered during the trial, on Jan. 11, 2021, Roux left their apartment to spend time with a friend for several days. Normand began using crystal meth and the same day began experiencing hallucinations while he consumed GHB as well.

When his mother returned on Jan. 16, 2021, she asked her son to help bring in grocery bags. He managed to do so despite experiencing hallucinations of dinosaurs and active volcanoes. When she asked him to shovel snow he experienced hallucinations that he was creating tsunamis with each push of the shovel.

Normand continued to hallucinate that day and hoped to get a grip on himself by sleeping. At around 1:30 a.m. the following morning a neighbour who lived in the same building could hear the mother and son arguing.

The neighbour testified that she heard Normand yell “F–k you!” at his mother three times before the Montreal police arrived.

“The victim’s brother and Mr. Normand’s uncle, Mr. François Roux, testified. He lived in an apartment above his sister and nephew. Around 1:30 a.m., he was awakened by the voice of his sister. His sister had character, but he had never heard her scream so loudly. He decided to go downstairs to tell them to keep their voices down,” Brunton wrote in his decision. “When he entered through the back door, he saw his bloodied sister on the floor in a common area. Mr. Normand was standing at his feet with bloody hands. A knife was on the ground, near Mr. Normand. Mr. Roux asked his nephew: ‘What did you do?’ He received no response. Mr. Normand was frozen, motionless. He showed no reaction to his uncle’s question. According to the latter, he did not look enraged.”

Normand had no reactions when the first police officers arrived and arrested him.

He was taken to a hospital where his clothes were seized. When a nurse used a syringe to take a sample of his blood he accused the nurse of injecting him with COVID-19. Several hours later, he asked for access to a phone so he could call his mother. He insisted that she was still alive.

Normand was evaluated by at least two mental health experts following his arrest.

“There is no evidence that stabbing his mother was part of any delusional belief held by Mr. Normand. He testified that his mother was not part of his hallucinations and that those same hallucinations did not prompt him to commit violent acts. Any allusion to the contrary in the report and the testimony of (psychiatrist Louis Morissette) is based on pure speculation,” Brunton wrote while explaining his decision to not allow the jury to deliver an acquittal verdict.

“At best, the evidence, including Dr. Morissette’s testimony and his report, supports the position that Mr. Normand’s judgment was impaired at the time he stabbed his mother. This is not the equivalent of concluding that his act of stabbing his mother was unintentional. To reach this conclusion, it will be necessary to take a speculative leap to conclude this inference.”

Brunton will meet with the lawyers in the case next week to set a date to hear sentencing arguments.

pcherry@postmedia.com