The mother of a woman from Edmonton murdered last September says that she was surprised by the blind man to know that the man accused in her daughter’s murder has been granted bail.
Collin Boucher-Gionet, 34, accused of second degree murder and indignity to human remains in the death of his girlfriend Aylissa Rovere, received the release of house arrest.
Boucher-Gionet has a criminal record with the courts and was on probation at the time of the alleged murder.
Rovere’s mother, Jodi Dunn, said he can’t understand why Boucher-Gionet has been granted additional freedoms.
“He is willing to kill and free someone like him, who has been in trouble before, it’s just another slap,” said Dunn. “It makes no sense.”
A release order presented to the King Court Bank on March 7 details the conditions of its release.
With a cash deposit bail of $ 2,500, Boucher-Gionet will remain in house arrest 24 hours under the supervision of a guarantee. The conditions prevent you from consuming illicit drugs or alcohol, carrying weapons and contacting any of the 24 people, including Dunn.
A bond hearing that had been scheduled for the King court bank on March 7 was canceled after the crown consented to the liberation conditions.
Dunn said he feels at the limit. She expected him to remain in the custody of the Remand center of Edmonton.
“This will affect the lives of many people,” he said. “And as far as I am concerned, there should be a protest. What is our justice system doing?”
In a statement to CBC, Boucher-Gionet’s lawyer said that his client has constitutional right to be innocent and obtain a reasonable bond, regardless of the accusations against him.
“Since no one can predict the future, the bond is about mitigating the risk,” Stacey Purser wrote.
“The crown lawyer very experienced in the archive felt that the conditions we proposed, including house arrest with guarantee supervision, properly mitigated any risk to the public.”
The Alberta Crown Prosecutor’s Office has refused to specifically comment on the release of Boucher-Gionet.
Rovere, a mother of two 32 -year -old children, was last seen on September 6. His body was found the following week when the police recorded a house in Parkland County, about 40 kilometers west of Edmonton.
Dunn has said that his daughter was trying to abandon the relationship.
Boucher-Gionet has been in custody since his arrest on September 17 when he was arrested in a stolen vehicle after the Edmonton police issued a public order that appointed him as the only suspect in the murder.
The police say that the two were in an intimate relationship. The researchers have not published the cause of death of Rovere.
‘The wrong message’
The release of Boucher-Gionet means that it can remain outside the jail while the case moves through the justice system, a process that is expected to take months.
You still have to present supplications to the charges you face. Preliminary investigation, a hearing to determine if the evidence against him is sufficient to proceed to trial, has been scheduled for early September.
If Boucher-Gionet will be ordered to be judged in the King’s Bench court after preliminary investigation, he has chosen that his case is heard before a judge and jury.
Dunn said he called the crown office repeatedly last week to ask for an update on the case when he learned that Boucher-Gionet would be released in a matter of days.
“It should have been immediately notified,” he said. “There was only a lack of communication on his part, which I think was, you know, a very bad job.”
She said that the release of Boucher-Gionet establishes a preceding worrying precedent for survivors of domestic violence in the hope of seeking justice and protection against the courts.
“Send the wrong message.”
BJ Darton, who has guardianship of the two young children of Boucher-Gionet, said that the decision to free a person accused of homicide is worrying.
Darton, whose deceased daughter, Brittany Sagan, was in a relationship with the defendants throughout the early 2020, said he believes that his liberation will undermine faith in the criminal justice system.
“It’s a slap on the face,” he said.
The crown prosecution service told CBC that it would not be appropriate to comment on the release of Boucher-Gionet, since its case remains before the courts.
Instead, the crown provided a statement detailed by the legislation surrounding the right of liberation of a defendant, noting that each accused person has the right “does not deny a reasonable bond” without a fair cause.
After making an arrest, a defendant is entitled to a bail audience or “show cause”, regardless of the charges, to determine if it can be released until the trial, the crown officials wrote in an email to CBC.
“If the accused person can establish, in a balance of probabilities, that their detention is not justified by any of the reasons listed in the Criminal Code, then the defendants must be released,” said the statement.
“In all bond situations, the crown and the court must make a decision based on the relevant facts presented at that time.”
When he was arrested in Rovere’s murder, Boucher-Gionet was on probation for threatening to kill Lillian Kuervers, a woman who considered her adoptive mother, in August 2023.
Kuervers said he’s now nervous.
She said she is taking her children out of her home. She has begun to pack, and plans to move from Edmonton’s apartment she has called home for more than two years.
Kuervers told CBC that he has no faith in judicial orders to keep it safe.
“All these no contacts [orders] and all. It’s just a piece of paper, “he said.
“Our justice system does not protect victims.”
