A lawyer representing Randy Tshilumba has filed a notice of appeal of the jury’s verdict that found him guilty last month of first-degree murder in the death of Clémence Beaulieu-Patry.
During the trial, defence lawyers Philippe Larochelle and Sébastien Chartrand mounted a defence arguing their client suffered from a mental health problem and was delusional long before he stabbed the victim while she was working at a Maxi supermarket on Papineau Ave. on April 10, 2016. Tshilumba testified in his defence and said he was convinced that Beaulieu-Patry and a small group of her friends were plotting to do him harm. Tshilumba and Beaulieu-Patry attended the same high school, years before she was killed, and they barely knew each other.
The notice of appeal, filed by a different lawyer named Julie Giroux, raises six legal arguments and all are related to Tshilumba’s mental state. For example, Giroux questions whether the presiding judge in the trial, Superior Court Justice Hélène Di Salvo, made an error by allowing a psychiatrist to answer a question, posed by a member of the jury, concerning what Tshilumba’s life would be like if he were convicted of murder. Giroux also questions whether Di Salvo made an error when she addressed the juror’s question during her final instructions to the jury.
The Quebec Court of Appeal received the notice on Monday.
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