Steve Lévesque, accused of 2nd degree murder of Maxime Dugas-Lepage, continued his testimony at his trial, Wednesday, at Rimouski courthouse. The accused pointedly indicated to the court that he would have removed the victim’s body on the Rivière des Mille-Îles in Laval.
Steve Lévesque began the day by describing the path he says he traveled, a day after the alleged events, between Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and a warehouse in Saint-Lin-Laurentides where he allegedly hid his vehicle where the body of the victim would be filed the previous day.
The defendant also explained that he would have removed the gun involved in the death of Maxime Dugas-Lepage at a dumpster at the rest stop on Highway 20.
Steve Lévesque continued his account by explaining that, on January 22, 202, he would have contacted Maxime Labrie to ask him to come and help him. The accused told the court that he only now realized that the victim’s body was too heavy for him to move on his own. He said he thought: I will not have the strength to deal with the body problem alone.
Maxime Labrie would therefore accompany him to Montreal later that day. The next day, January 23, 2020, the two men would have gone to Terrebonne to shop at large box stores.
They allegedly bought, among other things, approximately 100 pounds of weights and dumbbells, slings, tie straps and tie wraps.
Always calm during his testimony, the accused then recounted what would happen in the Saint-Lin warehouse where he and Maxime Labrie would go to the purchases they had made. They would have taken the victim’s body out of Steve Lévesque’s car and come out of the blanket where it was wrapped.
The two men would have placed it on the canvases they had bought earlier and placed the weights on either side of the body. They could have rotated the whole thing on canvases that they would have fixed with the help of straps.
These explanations seemed hard to hear for the victim’s family members to attend the trial.
Steve Lévesque continued his testimony by arguing that he and Maxime Labrie would hand over the corpse so it was tied to the trunk of his car.
The next day, the two men allegedly scouted in nearby streams. We had to find a place to dispose of the corpse.said the defendant in court.
Steve Lévesque explained that he would have gone, still with Maxime Labrie, on a railway bridge that crosses the Mille-Îles river and connects the east of the island of Laval to Terrebonne.
The accused mentioned that, when it got dark, he would have thrown the body of Maxime Dugas-Lepage under the bridge and the latter would have fallen into the water.
Steve Lévesque and Maxime Labrie then went to the Sheraton hotel in Laval to leave the vehicle that would have been used to transport the body, the defendant’s Dodge Journey.
The two men were supposed to return to Rimouski where they were arrested by police on the night of January 25, 2020.
Steve Lévesque is due to be cross-examined by the Criminal and Penal Prosecutions prosecutor on Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, the defendant recounted the events leading up to the death of Maxime Dugas-Lepage in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts on January 20, 2020. He explained that after a discussion that quickly soured, Steve Lévesque explained in court that Maxime Dugas-Lepage allegedly pulled out a pistol or revolver type weapon and pointed it at him.
Steve Lévesque jumped to grab Maxime Dugas-Lepage’s arm. The two men allegedly backed away and fired guns when they hit the ground. The projectile hit the victim in the head.
Source: Radio-Canada
