Murderer must serve 13 years: Kelly-Anne Drummond stabbed to death. 'Our only wish now it that he gets the help he needs ... so he will be somewhat rehabilitated'
By: Sue Montgomery
The Gazette, April 21, 2006
Martin Morin-Cousineau caught his girlfriend off guard, attacking her from behind and plunging a steak knife into her neck.
Such violence, especially against women, is unacceptable, Superior Court Justice Claude Champagne said yesterday in ruling Kelly-Anne Drummond's killer will have no chance for parole until he has served 13 years in prison.
Last week, a jury found Morin-Cousineau, 32, guilty of second-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence.
The defence had asked for the minimum parole eligibility of 10 years, but the judge went with the Crown's request.
Given that the jurisprudence for parole eligibility in similar cases is 12 or 13 years, the Drummonds were satisfied with the decision.
"Our only wish now is that he gets the help he needs so that if and when he does leave prison, he will be somewhat rehabilitated ... and will never hurt another woman," Doreen Haddad Drummond said.
A teary Micheline Morin-Cousineau, who has been in the courtroom every day since the trial began March 6, said 13 years "is an enormous amount of time."
She continued to back her son's claim that the death was an accident and said the family plans to appeal the verdict.
"It's impossible that he put a knife in Kelly-Anne's neck," she said.
"He's cried over her death ever since Oct. 4."
Drummond, a popular athlete, lifeguard and graduate of Concordia University, was found in a pool of blood Oct. 3, 2004, on the kitchen floor of the apartment she shared with Morin-Cousineau.
The couple had been fighting over $30 owed to their landlord, when Morin-Cousineau got fed up with the "nagging."
He said that when he threw his hands up in frustration, the knife with which he had been eating flew into the air, stabbing Drummond in the back of the neck.
She then slipped on a 7-Up bottle and fell against the stove, which shoved the knife farther into her skull, he said.
Morin-Cousineau's fatal blow immediately turned Drummond, 24, into a quadriplegic and left her unable to breathe on her own. Her family decided to remove life support Oct. 5.
Champagne said Morin-Cousineau has difficulty controlling his anger in relationships with women, and has had a restraining order placed against him by another woman.
"He followed, without success in my opinion, an anger-management training course, and his mother admitted that he often took out his frustrations at home by hitting the walls with his fists and feet," he wrote.
The judge told the Drummonds now that court proceedings were over, he hoped they could move to the next stage of mourning
smontgomery@thegazette.canwest.com
