A former accomplice of ex-killer Frédérick Silva, who allegedly made silencers and guns and who police found evidence throughout his home, was sentenced to seven years in Montreal prison on Monday.
Posted at 12:00 p.m
In practice, however, this sentence has no direct impact on Giovanni Presta, as it coincides with a life sentence without parole for 25 years, which he has been serving since December after being convicted of the murder of Sébastien Beauchamp. promised in 2018.
On the day Frédérick Silva was arrested after two years on the run, in February 2019, investigators from the Organized Crime Unit of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) searched Presta’s home in Terrebonne.
They found gun frames, magazines, supplies, barrels, machined silencers, a 3D printer, documents used in the manufacture of firearms and silencers, prohibited weapons and ammunition, all scattered throughout the house.
They discovered this arsenal, in pieces or not, under a cushion on the back patio’s wooden bench, on the refrigerator, and in a cupboard next to the stove in the kitchen, and throughout the office, closet, closet, and basement bathroom.
In this last room, in a hole in the wall hidden by a medicine cabinet that had been unscrewed and fixed several times, the police captured in particular five working pistols, some of which were loaded, a semi-automatic weapon whose serial number had been erased, magazines Silencer, a gun and ammo.
An arsenal behind a wardrobe
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
Upon searching the home, investigators noticed that the bathroom medicine cabinet was not securely attached to the wall. They discovered this by unscrewing it.
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
These firearms were laid out when police discovered the opening in the bathroom wall.
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
The semi-automatic weapon found in the wall
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
A silenced pistol discovered in the same hideout
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
Giovanni Presta admitted to making silencers.
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The sleuths also discovered several hunting weapons in a locker in the basement, but they were all legal.
Brass knuckles were also found in a blanket.
process averted
Presta faced eight counts of charges, but he admitted the facts (nolo contendere) on two: possession of prohibited or restricted firearms without a license and manufacture of firearms and prohibited devices.
PHOTO THE PRESS
John Presta
Presta pleaded not guilty to retain his right of appeal in the murder of Sébastien Beauchamp.
The other charges he faced were dropped, as were those against his spouse.
The prosecution, represented by Me Nathalie Kléber, and the defense, represented by Me Dominique Shoofey, argued that this joint proposal made it possible in particular to avoid a trial in which 20 witnesses would have been heard and around 50 witnesses would have been brought to trial.
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