Quebec Court of Appeal overturns first-degree murder conviction of man who killed taxi driver

Michel Duchaussoy is on trial for the first degree murder of Ziad Bouzid

Montreal — The Quebec Court of Appeal has overturned the first-degree murder conviction of a man who killed a Montreal taxi driver in 2013 and ordered that he face a new trial.

Michel Duchaussoy was found guilty in May 2016 of the first-degree murder of Ziad Bouzid. The jury determined that Duchaussoy killed the taxi driver after he drove Duchaussoy and his wife home from Dorval to Cote-des-Neiges on Nov. 19, 2013.

The jury accepted the Crown's arguments that Duchaussoy was determined to kill someone because he was angry and frustrated with poverty after losing his job and his home.

But in a ruling made public Monday, the appeals court said the judge in Duchaussoy's trial erred in his directives to the jury as to what kind of killings could be deemed to be pre-meditated, a key element of a first-degree murder charge.

In addition to overturning the first-degree murder conviction, the appeals court ordered that Duchaussoy face a new trial.

Duchaussoy was found to have been carrying a sawed-off shotgun in his backpack and had no money with him at the time he called the cab, which the Crown had argued was proof of his intent to kill.

The jury heard that Duchaussoy shot Bouzid twice in the head; once, and then again several seconds later when he realized Bouzid was alive.

Duchaussoy would have served a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years if the first-degree murder conviction had stood.