'I was worried for my safety': Witness takes stand in Windsor murder trial

Windsor murder trial underway Three men stand accused in the shooting death of 20-year-old Madisen Gingras three years ago. CTV Windsor’s Rich Garton reports.

One of the two people shot at in a south Windsor murder in April of 2020 took the stand as a Crown witness in an ongoing trial Thursday.

According to testimony heard during the trial, Jacob Reaume was in the car when his girlfriend, Madisen Gingras, 20, was shot in the head and killed on April 1, 2020. Reaume was also shot in the arm but survived his injury.

Three men, Keermaro Rolle, Tameko Vilneus and Kyle Hanna are facing first degree murder and attempted murder charges for their alleged role in the incident.

Reaume spent the entire day Thursday on the witness stand as a Crown witness, detailing his involvement with the accused parties.

Reaume testified that in 2020 he was working as a drug dealer and met one of the accused, Tameko Vilneus, through a mutual friend.

“She wanted me to meet a few of her friends that could potentially be business partners, selling drugs,” Reaume told court.

Reaume said he eventually met Vilneus and Rolle in early February, and they went into business together, with Reaume agreeing to sell fentanyl, crack cocaine, and marijuana.

The Crown walked the jury through a series of text messages between Vilneus and Reaume, detailing their communications and meetings to exchange money for more drugs over a series of in-person interactions at local motels.

Reaume told the court that Madisen Gingras attended one of those in-person meetings at a local motel to meet the business partners.

From the first time they exchanged money for drugs, Reaume said had a balance owing with Vilneus, one that would persist throughout the business relationship.

About a month after Reaume started doing business with Tameko Vilneus, who he refers to as “Meeks,” Reaume said he was the victim of a home invasion.

Reaume told court on March 8, two masked individuals entered his house while he was home. After some pounding on his door, Reaume scrambled and took about $10,000 cash and $20,000 to $30,000 worth of drugs from his safe and left the house through his bedroom window. Gingras was home at the time but was unharmed.

Reaume said the masked individuals took two safes from his home containing laptops, tablets and other stuff, and at that point, he knew he had to call his suppliers.

Reaume testified that after he alerted Vilneus of the robbery, Vilneus and Rolle came to visit a few days later. Along with Gingras, they went looking for the possible perpetrators without any success.

Before leaving, Reaume testified Vilneus offered him a green 9mm handgun.

“They were going to leave it behind for protection so if something like that ever happened again that I would have protection,” Reaume told court. “But I told them that I didn’t want it. I didn’t plan on continuing to sell drugs after that knowing that I owed them all that money.”

Weeks would go by before their next interaction in late March.

Reaume recalled feeling quite nervous about this as he still owed money that he didn’t have.

“If somebody were to lose $30,000, they’d be really upset, pissed off. Who knows what could happen,” he said. ”I was worried for my safety, Madisen’s safety.”

There is a 14-member jury hearing the case, one that could last up to three months with more than 70 witnesses in the queue.

The trial is scheduled to resume Friday.