Case of former Quebec judge accused of killing wife to end with guilty plea

QUEBEC — A retired Quebec judge who was facing a second murder trial in his wife’s 2009 shooting death will enter a guilty plea on Thursday, putting an end to a legal battle spanning more than 14 years.

Crown prosecutor François Godin made the announcement in a hearing on Wednesday at the courthouse in Quebec City, but he did not disclose what charge Jacques Delisle would admit to.

Delisle’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment, but Patricia Johnson, a spokesperson for the Quebec prosecution service, confirmed a guilty plea will be entered at a hearing for the former judge on Thursday morning.

“The parties have announced that Mr. Delisle’s case is postponed until March 14, 2024 at 9 a.m., at the Quebec courthouse, to be disposed of, and that Mr. Delisle’s presence is required in court,” Johnson said.

Delisle, who is believed to be the first Canadian judge to ever stand trial for murder, was convicted in 2012 of fatally shooting his wife, Marie Nicole Rainville, and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The 88-year-old former Quebec Court of Appeal judge spent nine years behind bars before being freed in 2021 when the federal justice minister ordered a new trial after reviewing evidence and concluding a miscarriage of justice had likely occurred.

Delisle has maintained that he found his wife already dead of an apparent suicide when he walked into the condo they shared in Quebec City on Nov. 12, 2009. She was lying on a sofa, a .22-calibre pistol at her side and a bullet wound in her head, the trial heard. The Crown argued that Delisle killed her to avoid a costly divorce and that he had wanted to move in with his former secretary, with whom he was having an affair.

A major part of the case revolved around the angle of entry of the bullet, which could confirm or rule out the suicide theory. Questions surrounding the reliability of this forensic evidence led to a new trial being ordered in 2021.

During the autopsy, a pathologist failed to photograph the brain or take samples that would have shown traces of the bullet that killed Rainville. Delisle’s lawyers argued this evidence would have allowed them to prove their suicide theory.

Delisle’s initial appeal was dismissed in 2013, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case. 

But in 2021 David Lametti, then the federal justice minister, ordered the new trial after reviewing evidence that was not previously before the courts.

Delisle’s lawyers then argued successfully in April 2022 that a retrial would be impossible because of the errors in the pathology report and unreasonable delays, but the Court of Appeal later reversed the Superior Court judge’s decision to grant a stay and paved the way for a new trial.

The Supreme Court of Canada was expected to decide on Thursday whether it would hear Delisle’s appeal of that last decision, but as of Wednesday the case no longer appeared on the court’s schedule.

Rainville had been paralyzed on one side by a stroke in 2007 and was recovering from a broken hip suffered a few months before she died. Delisle’s version of events stated that his wife was depressed and took her own life using the gun that was found by her body.

The former judge didn’t testify at his trial, but in 2015, he admitted in an interview with Radio-Canada that he had contributed to his wife’s suicide by leaving a loaded gun in the home.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2024.

— By Stéphane Blais in Montreal

The Canadian Press