february 12th, 2007 › briscoe-laboucan trial › nina courtepatte › deadmonton 2005 › deadmonton › edmonton

WARNING

Nina Louise Courtepatte, 13, died from blunt force trauma on April 3rd, 2005.

Charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault were Michael Erin Briscoe, now 36, Joseph Wesley Laboucan, now 21, and three teens not identified by provision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

One male teen, aged 19 and nicknamed "Pyro", pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in youth court in Stony Plain on December 8th, 2006. He was to be sentenced as an adult in April 2007.

Briscoe's girlfriend, now 19 and named "Cindy" in this narrative, went to trial March 12th, 2007. Pyro's girlfriend, now 17 and nicknamed "Buffy", had a trial date set for May 1st, 2007.

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On February 11th, 2007 the Edmonton Sun reported that a group of Calgarians planned to appear at the Briscoe-Laboucan trial as part of their effort to lobby the federal government to reinstate the death penalty.

Interviewed by the Sun, Merle Terlesky said he represented a citizen group who felt that anyone capable of such a "horrendous" crime as Nina's murder should be punished accordingly.

“We're trying to draw some national attention to reigniting the debate on capital punishment,” Terlesky said while admitting no verdict had yet been made in the Courtepatte case.

“Is it in the interest of society at large to house [criminals] after committing such a heinous crime? I question if someone like that is rehabilitatable.”

For more about Terlesky's effort and the issue of the death penalty, visit the Why Edmonton? Capital Punishment page.

After a three-day break, and with the testimony of the juvenile witnesses and defendants, along with a convicted teen, now dealt with, the trial moved forward with testimony from police officers who met with Briscoe and Laboucan shortly after Nina's body was discovered.

Before the day ended, a voir dire hearing – a trial within a trial – halted progress in the case.

The session began with the court hearing that the RCMP considered Joseph Laboucan a person of interest in a murder case even before Nina's body was found.

RCMP Sgt. Jerry Dunn testified that at first police weren't sure which murder Laboucan was involved with.

Hours after Nina was killed on April 3rd, 2005, Laboucan called Jarvis Nelson and his girlfriend Nicole living in Fort St. John, British Columbia.

Laboucan told him that he and nine of his friends had been at a party where a girl was killed when she hit in the head with a wrench.

Nicole later called her aunt, an RCMP officer. The couple were then contacted by Fort St. John RCMP who relayed the information to Edmonton police.

Nina's body was found April 4th. The next day the RCMP arrested Laboucan for murder as he went to a lawyer's office to pick up an insurance check for an injury claim.

Court earlier heard that Buffy, Briscoe and Pyro were waiting in a car for him to come out and pay them the $1,000 he had promised them. Laboucan never came back to the car and the trio ironically suspected he had gone to the police.

Laboucan was taken to the Stony Plain RCMP detachment where he was told he was being charged with murder.

"You've already been placed under arrest for break, enter and mischief – one offence – and failure to appear. I'm also arresting you for murder. Do you understand?"

"For murder ...?"

"Yes."

“Are you serious?”

"Do you understand?"

"I understand what murder is ... but I didn't murder anybody.”

Laboucan was allowed to leave the interview room and call a lawyer. Upon his return he tells police his version of what had transpired two days earlier. It sounded much like the first draft of a Quentin Tarantino screenplay.

During the videotaped interview played in court, Laboucan told RCMP Const. Rob Kropp that he had been drinking and driving around Edmonton in a 1980s muscle car with some friends when they picked up two prostitutes on 118th Avenue, a well-known hooker hangout.

Laboucan listed the friends as his former gang boss – a car thief and drug dealer named Lorenzo, a "massive" Italian debt collector named Ace, an "shady" Asian named Tran and a black street person who went by the name Toothless Jay.

He described one prostitute as tall, skinny and native, the other short, fat and blonde. Laboucan said the deal was to trade sex for crack cocaine.

He said the group drove all over town before ending up in a field outside the city where they had sex with the women. Then, according to Laboucan, the Asian named Tran hit one of the prostitutes in the head with an object.

"I don't know what is was. It was like a wrench or whatever – a ratchet? A big steel ratchet?"

"He hit her over the back of the head with it," Laboucan said.

"They started, like, beating her up and they kicked her around and stuff, and they hit her over the head a few times."

Laboucan claimed everyone in the group beat up the prostitute – everyone except for him.

As the woman was being kicked around, many in the group were laughing.

When he started to get upset, Laboucan said a gun was put to his head and he was asked, "Why are you freaking out?"

"Do you know what I mean? Like, I couldn't even stop them – there was like nine of us there. There was nothing I could do."

“If I would have tried to do anything," Laboucan said, “they would have shot me.”

"They took her money and then we left," adding she was still alive when they drove back to Edmonton.

He didn't mention a 13-year-old girl or West Edmonton Mall during his statement. He told the officer he believed the prostitute was a single mother.

Laboucan said he feared the people who killed the woman, and he said he feared for his own life now that he spoken to police about the incident.

" 'Cause they have cops working for them, they have judges, they have lawyers, they have everything. You understand what I'm saying?"

"From what I've just told you, I'm dead," Laboucan stated. "If I go to jail, I'm dead."

"That took a lot of courage to be able to tell me that under the circumstances that you're under," Kropp said, trying to comfort the man.

"That's my life right there," Laboucan interjected.

"Yep, no, I understand," Kropp offered.

"They're going to kill me for this, eh?"

"Well 'kay, you know what, we're gonna make sure no harm comes to you."

Now 21, Laboucan told Kropp he got mixed up in the whole thing because of his troubled youth.

A few years back, he had often slept in parkades or in the tunnels beneath West Edmonton Mall. He said he was addicted to drugs, and claimed he had a black belt in karate and was a veteran kick boxer.

Laboucan said he worked as a debt collector for the Hells Angels and the Triad and would beat people to earn money.

Not knowing of any murder that fit Laboucan's story, RCMP decided to put an undercover officer in his jail cell while they held him overnight. Laboucan told essentially the same story to the agent.

RCMP Cpl. William Fowler, an investigator on the Courtepatte file, decided there was insufficient evidence to hold Laboucan and let him go.

On April 12th, Laboucan was arrested at West Edmonton Mall where he had rented two rooms at the Fantasyland Hotel.

RCMP again placed an undercover agent in Laboucan's cell, and he told the officer he was there when Nina was killed but didn't take an active role in her murder.

A voir dire hearing, expected to take a week, was now being held to determine whether Laboucan's statements to RCMP in his April 5th, 2005 interview would be admissible as evidence.

Laboucan's defence lawyers argued his Charter rights were violated in the recorded session.

The court also heard how Michael Briscoe reacted when he was arrested on April 11th, 2005 for his role in Nina's death.

Within hours, Briscoe blamed the others and vowed to take a plea deal. He compared the killing to a fairy tale that had gone horribly wrong.

“Sometimes,” he told an undercover officer staying the night with him in a jail cell, “the Big Bad Wolf gets them.”

Const. Leonard McCoshen said he introduced himself to Briscoe as "Mike." He told him he had been picked up by police for not paying $1,500 in outstanding fines and for driving without insurance.

Briscoe told McCoshen in the jail cell that he was simply acting as a guardian angel to his girlfriend Cindy, who was also there the night Nina was killed, and was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Briscoe said he didn't hurt Nina and asked if a person's DNA could rub off on someone by simply touching them with, say, a hand.

He also wondered what the treatment was in prison for “rats” who talked to police and “skinners” who had sex with children.

Halfway through the night, Briscoe was taken out of the cell.

When he came back, he told McCoshen he had been charged with “the big one” – first-degree murder.

Briscoe then talked of cutting a deal.

“He said he should not do time for anything he didn't do,” McCoshen testified.

Briscoe figured he could make a deal and do about six months' prison time. He would be walking out of jail while the others were walking in, the officer reported Briscoe as saying.

“He said he would let the rest of the people involved fight it out for the best deal.”

But later Briscoe changed his mind and told McCoshen he would fight the charges in court.

The trial continued February 13th, 2007

A list of persons named in this case can be found at the bottom of the main Briscoe-Laboucan trial page.

deadmonton 2005 - nina courtepatte - briscoe-laboucan trial - february 12th, 2007