A driver who mugged an escort agency owner to kill him with 16 stab wounds has just been found guilty while serving a life sentence.
• Also read: Accompanying driver charged with murder
“Guilt of first-degree murder,” the chief jury said gravely at the Montreal courthouse Monday.
Defendant Kamel Chebbout, 39, looked serious and didn’t say a word. Neither at the time of the verdict nor shortly thereafter when Judge Hélène Di Salvo sentenced him to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole until he had served at least 25 years in prison.
Photo provided by the SPVM
Camel Chebbout
accused
The jury’s verdict came exactly four years to the day after the murder of Azzedine Laknit, an escort agency owner, who was killed in Square Décarie on the morning of February 20, 2019.
According to evidence presented by the Crown, the accused and the victim had an argument over a woman. Filled with resentment and determined to retaliate, Chebbout, who was an escort driver, had made an appointment with Mr Laknit on the pretext that he wanted to give him some money. Instead, he stabbed him 16 times with a kitchen knife.
“He’s dead, I killed him, I called the police, I’ll spend my life in prison but I don’t like it when anyone touches my pride,” Chebbout said shortly after a recorded phone call.
- Listen to Richard Martineau’s interview with Sandra Wesley, Executive Director of Stella Organization QUB radio :
He had also called 911 to report.
However, during the trial he tried to convince the jury that he had acted either in self-defense or as a provocation. It was said that he drank gin that day.
The jury ultimately did not accept either of these explanations.
“We believe the jury made a good decision in this case,” commented The Crown’s Me Matthew Ferguson. I hope that this verdict, announced on the fourth anniversary of the murder, will allow relatives [de la victime] mourn.”
Me Marie-Hélène Giroux, representing the defendant, has 30 days to appeal the verdict if the defendant so requests.
Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?
Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?