Man convicted in 1987 killing of Moncton teen granted day parole

A man who was convicted for the 1987 murder of a Moncton teenager has been granted day parole.

The man convicted for the 1987 murder of a Moncton, N.B., teenager has been granted day parole for six months.

The Parole Board of Canada hearing was held at the Cowansville medium security prison in Cowansville, Que., where Patrice Mailloux is being held.

Mailloux was convicted of killing 16-year-old Laura Davis in November 1987 during a robbery at her family’s convenience store in Moncton. He was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for 20 years in 1988.

Mailloux has previously been granted day parole in 2016 and 2022 but was denied last year.

Brenda Davis Phillips, Laura’s sister, who attended the hearing, said Mailloux will spend his six-month parole at a halfway house in Quebec.

The parole will be reviewed in six months to see if it will be extended.

“We realize that they have guidelines regarding what he has to meet in order to be granted parole, but we were terribly upset with the decision,” Davis Phillips said in an email to CTV Atlantic. “We feel that he has not proven that he deserves the privilege of parole. It hasn’t been that long since he had been unlawfully at-large, and he had been denied full and day parole last year.”

The now 70-year-old was unlawfully at large for three weeks in September 2022 during his parole release.

Davis said it was her first in-person parole hearing since before the COVID-19 pandemic and the first since her father passed away.

“It is so emotional every year when we have to re-live Laura’s murder, and when he gets granted yet another day parole release, it saddens and angers is as he has failed at every attempt of day parole,” Davis continued. “It has been 38 years and he has still not proven that he can follow his parole rules and restrictions. Every chance he has been given at parole he has abused the privilege and had his parole revoked.”

The decision from the parole board stated Mailloux had three letters of support received in August that addressed his “exemplary behaviour” and the ability to apply tools learned in his programs while incarcerated.

Mailloux is not allowed to enter New Brunswick during his parole or have any indirect or direct contact with the victim’s family, among other recommendations.

Mailloux’s full parole eligibility will be reassessed in 2028.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Derek Haggett and Bill Dicks

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