QUEBEC - A jury took just two days to convict a man of killing an aide to a Quebec cabinet minister in a rural town last May.
Francis Proulx, 30, was found guilty Wednesday of the first-degree murder of Nancy Michaud, a popular, well-liked mother of two.
At the time of her death, Michaud was an aide to Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard.
Proulx's attorney, Jean Desjardins, had argued his client should not be held criminally responsible for Michaud's death because of mental illnesses and the effect of anti-depressants he was taking.
Besides being active in provincial politics, Michaud was a dedicated community volunteer in Riviere-Ouelle, northeast of Quebec City, where she was killed on May 15, 2008.
Her husband, Daniel Casgrain, summed up his wife's death with one line when talking to reporters after the verdict was delivered.
"Nancy gave her life to save those of her children," said Casgrain, who returned home the night of the crime to find his wife gone but his children fast asleep.
Both Michaud, 37, and Proulx had grown up in Riviere-Ouelle, a village of about 1,200, which is about 140 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. They lived around the corner from each other when the crime occurred.
Casgrain said he could never forgive Proulx for what he'd done.
"I had everything I wanted out of life, we were a happy family," Casgrain said.
"This man deprived me of my happiness, that of my children and our future."
Proulx was arrested and charged a few days after Michaud's body was found in the basement of an abandoned house.
Last month, Proulx testified that he was dressed entirely in black and was masked when he entered Michaud's house through a basement door.
Proulx shot Michaud in the head while her two young sons slept and then dragged her body to an abandoned house where he had sex with her corpse.
