CAUTION: This tale includes visuals summaries of intimate companion physical violence.
After months of misuse, hazards, control and control by her on once more, off once more companion, 24-year-old Marie “Mimi” Gabriel was done.
She informed 40-year-old Jean-Bruno “Berno” Fenelon — 16 years her elderly, that began seeing her when she was 17 — to leave the south Ottawa home she had actually left to with their 2 kids months previously, with assistance from social solutions.
But it had not been functioning. She texted the male she was seeing that Fenelon wished to battle her, that he would not leave.
And she talked with her closest buddy Norlande Tassy by phone, that listened to Gabriel’s last recognized articulation:
“Get the f–k out of my house!” she shouted. Then absolutely nothing. Tassy remained on the line, yet never ever listened to Gabriel’s voice once more.
It was the early morning of March 26, 2022. Gabriel was discovered dead by authorities on the concrete flooring of her cellar 2 days later on, in a dried out swimming pool of her very own blood.
Fenelon positions for Ottawa authorities forensic recognition police officers after his apprehension in March 2022. (Ottawa authorities/Ontario Superior Court)
A lengthy day of mulling over
Late Friday evening, in a dark, near-empty court house, a court of 9 ladies and 3 guys discovered Fenelon guilty of first-degree murder after a test that extended 6 weeks in Ottawa’s Superior Court.
Fenelon was punished by Justice Ian Carter to life behind bars without parole for 25 years, which occurs instantly when a person is founded guilty of murder in the very first level in Canada.
The court approved the proof that it was Fenelon that, in an envious craze, struck Gabriel at the very least two times in the head with a 30-pound pinhead– practically quickly deadly strikes provided as she was currently existing damaged on the flooring.
It followed Fenelon had actually struck her, dragged her and chased her around her cellar– proof of which was discovered in the bloody impacts her bare feet left on the concrete.
The strikes with the pinhead were provided with “severe force;” the kind typically seen in auto wreckages or drops from a terrific elevation, Crown lawyer Dallas Mack claimed in his closing comments. They were “clear indicators” of Fenelon’s extreme disgust for Gabriel.
“This was personal,” Mack claimed.
A law enforcement officer goes out onto the ice at Petrie Island in March 2022 to get among Fenelon’s boots. Police carried out a search after GPS information on Fenelon’s phone led them to the location. (Ottawa authorities/Ontario Superior Court)
Disposed- of proof recuperated by authorities
Afterward, Fenelon discarded his garments and boots, discolored with Gabriel’s blood, at Petrie Island along theOttawa River Homicide private investigators complied with GPS breadcrumbs from Fenelon’s phone to the location and looked it for days prior to discovering them.
It was Fenelon that called 911 to report searching for Gabriel’s body 2 days after his strike, under the semblance that he had actually found her body for the very first time while attempting to leave their youngsters.
With its guilty judgment, the court denied Toronto- based support attorney Ari Goldkind’s assertion in his shutting comments that the Crown had not showed its situation past an affordable question.
Goldkind had actually said Fenelon had absolutely nothing to conceal concerning the “toxic, terrible,” nature of his partnership with Gabriel, and that he consistently informed private investigators he had absolutely nothing to do with the criminal activity and would not eliminate the mommy of his youngsters.
He additionally claimed it was unlikely that an “Incredible Hulk” like Fenelon can leave a battle whole.
Parents explain extreme regret
After the guilty judgment, as Gabriel’s friends and family review their target effect declarations, lots of in the court room wept, consisting of a lot of the jurors and murder investigators Guy Seguin and Jennifer McLinton ( that currently benefits one more device).
Gabriel’s mommy, Fatou Gabriel, created that her regret for refraining even more to secure her child “kills me every day … pains me to my bones … keeps me up every night.”
She asked her child ahead home “over and over, but because she was scared of Berno, she refused.”
Her papa, Andy Stone, called Fenelon a “woman-beating coward” that “ripped [Gabriel’s] character to shreds” also after killing her. But he additionally explained sensations of regret.
“How can I even begin to express my regrets for not being the father she deserved? For not acting differently? He hurt my little girl, and I did nothing. I let her down,” he informed court.
After the target effect declarations, the Crown claimed Gabriel was qualified to finish the partnership and leave Fenelon, and called intimate companion physical violence ‘an afflict on our culture.’ (Supplied by Andy Stone)
‘Senseless cruelty’
Gabriel’s older sibling, David Gabriel, informed Fenelon that every day, he checked out him in the detainee’s dock and wanted to see “an ounce of remorse.”
“But these past few weeks only confirmed to me that you are a sadistic sociopath, who laughed at my father when he testified. You enjoyed seeing his pain.”
Her more youthful sibling, Ibn Stone, informed Fenelon he “tortured” the household.
“You have earned your place behind bars, stripped of freedom, and there is no better fate for someone who acted with such senseless brutality.”
‘It was the appropriate point’
Outside the court house, right before twelve o’clock at night, the household was eliminated.
“It was the right thing,” Andrew Stone claimed. “Twelve decent people, decent, decent people — they weren’t fooled. They didn’t believe his lies. They didn’t believe it was someone else.”
And he had a message for ladies and ladies.
“If you’re with a guy and he’s aggressive verbally, physically, run. Don’t say you’ll forgive him and he won’t do it again, because he will do it again. Run.
“And moms and dads, pay attention to your youngsters. … Because you do not intend to resemble me. I’m standing below speaking to you currently, my child’s dead. Full out. Dead.”
Support is readily available for those impacted by intimate companion physical violence. You can locate assistance solutions and regional sources in Canada by visiting this website If your circumstance is immediate, call 911.
