Former military reservist pleads guilty to second-degree murder

Guillaume Gelinas is led out of a bus and into the St. Jerome courthouse on Monday, Feb. 17, 2014

An ex-Canadian Armed Forces Reservist has pleaded guilty to the double murder of a Terrebonne couple.

Guillaume Gelinas, 26, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder following the stabbing deaths of his father, Luc Gelinas and his girlfriend, 35-year-old Julie Lemieux four years ago.

But on Monday, just as his trial was set to begin at the Joliette, Gelinas pleaded down to two counts of second degree murder.

Gelinas, who toured Afghanistan for eight months with the RCAF in 2010, was living with his father at the time of the murder.

The elder Gelinas and his girlfriend both worked in upper administration at Quebec’s liquor board.

The bodies were discovered in their Terrebonne home in February 2014, on what would’ve been Luc Gelinas’ 52nd birthday.

According to reports, Gelinas entered the home wearing a mask and carrying a baton, wanting to scare his father. However, a dispute over finances quickly erupted between the pair, and Gelinas – armed with a kitchen knife – stabbed his father 10 times. Lemieux sustained 38 stab wounds.

Gelinas’ lawyersrecommended to the judge that Gelinas serve a life sentence without possibility of parole for 18 years.