Charges were filed Tuesday in connection with three murders carried out in the St-Léonard borough in December.
In one case, Giovanni Presta Jr., 33, of Terrebonne is accused of first-degree murder in the death of Sébastien Beauchamp, 44, a former member of a Hells Angels support club who was gunned down on Dec. 20 at a gas station in the borough.
Presta appears to have no criminal record in Quebec, but he was charged on Monday at the Montreal courthouse, along with a woman named Sonia Langlais, 30, with being in possession of loaded, restricted and prohibited firearms in Terrebonne. They were also charged with fabricating firearms as well as the improper storage of guns. On Tuesday, Langlais was ordered to be released after she agreed to deposit $10,000 as bail. Presta remains detained and his case returns to court on March 27.
According to La Presse and the Journal de Montréal, an alleged hit man who was arrested on Saturday, Frederick Silva, 38, is a suspect in Beauchamp’s murder. Silva was charged with two murders on Saturday, but he is not charged with killing Beauchamp.
Also on Tuesday, Fodil-Abderhamane Lakehal, 21, was charged with manslaughter in the Dec. 24 deaths of Davis Arbour, 38, and Marc-Hilary Dasilma, 41. Both men were shot to death inside an apartment on Jean Talon St. E., near the corner of du Come St. Arbour is reported to have been a member of the Devil’s Ghosts and Dasilma was described in court documents as an influential member of a Montreal street gang.
Last week, Lakehal was charged with robbing Arbour on the day he died. On Tuesday, the armed robbery charge Lakehal faces was withdrawn, but he was ordered to remain detained for a bail hearing to be held on March 1. Police sources have said the double homicide appeared to have been the result of a drug deal that went bad.
Shortly after Arbour and Dasilma were killed, Montreal police said they believed several people were inside an apartment in the 10-storey residential building when the shooting took place. Almost everyone had fled before police arrived, but they found a 25-year-old woman at the scene. She was uninjured, but had to be taken to a hospital to be treated for shock.
There is nothing in the charges filed on Tuesday to indicate the two cases are related.