Prosecutor lays out case against athlete's boyfriend
Martin Morin-Cousineau charged with killing Kelly-Anne Drummond in 2004
The Gazette, March 21, 2006
By Katherine Wilton
Several days before Kelly-Anne Drummond died in the fall of 2004, the popular West Island athlete had told friends she wanted to leave her live-in boyfriend because he was threatening her, a crown prosecutor said yesterday.
Her boyfriend, Martin Morin-Cousineau, is charged with second-degree murder. His Superior Court trial began yesterday.
Drummond was found in a pool of blood on Oct. 3, 2004, in the kitchen of the Pierrefonds apartment she shared with Morin-Cousineau.
When doctors performed a brain scan on the 24-year-old woman, they spotted a 9.5-centimetre blade lodged at the base of her skull, prosecutor Helene Di Salvo told the jury.
Drummond was in cardiac arrest when ambulance technicians arrived on the scene.
She died two days later at the Montreal General Hospital.
During testimony by a crime-scene technician, Di Salvo put on a pair of latex gloves and showed jurors the handle of a kitchen knife with the blade broken off.
Morin-Cousineau, 31, was the only other person in the apartment at the time Drummond was attacked, and it was he who called 911, Di Salvo said as she laid out her case for the jury.
"He said he was in the living room and heard something fall (in the kitchen)," Di Salvo said.
Police arrived and arrested Morin-Cousineau.
Drummond, who worked as an educator in a daycare centre, was highly regarded in rugby and water polo circles at John Abbott College and Concordia University.
She was an accomplished lifeguard and competed for Quebec and Canada at international lifesaving competitions.
Drummond's parents, her younger sister, Kim, and several friends were in court for the first day of the trial, which is scheduled to last about three weeks.
Her mother, Doreen Haddad-Drummond, fought back tears as the court clerk read out the murder charge against Morin-Cousineau.
The accused, dressed in a white shirt and black jacket, listened attentively throughout the day, occasionally glancing at his parents, who were also in the courtroom.
The trial continues today.
kwilton@thegazette.canwest.com
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