'It did not happen': Accused in 2020 murder trial refutes most claims made by crown witness

Accused testifies for second time in murder trial Tameko Vilneus, accused in the murder of Madisen Gingras, told a jury his version of events Wednesday. Rich Garton explains.

One of the accused standing trial for an April 2020 south Windsor murder took the witness stand again Wednesday in Superior Court to be examined by the defence.

Tameko Vilneus, 28, is one of three men accused in the shooting death of 20-year-old Madisen Gingras. Co-accused Kyle Hanna, 29, and Keermaro Rolle, 26, are also charged with first-degree murder and were in court.

Two people were shot the night of April 1, 2020: Madisen Gingras and Jacob Reaume.

Reaume was shot in the arm and his girlfriend, Gingras was killed by a fatal gun-shot wound to the head.

In court, Vilneus explained to the jury he was part of a drug distribution ring out of Kitchener and had been dealing directly with Jacob Reaume for their sales in the Windsor area.

On his version of events, Vilneus quickly became the primary contact for Reaume.

Vilneus testified he would regularly make the trip to Windsor with about $10,000 worth of drugs and exchange them with Reaume for cash.

The night of the murder, April 1, Vilneus said the three accused men were at a motel on Huron Church Road.

He admits over the course of the day, the three men consumed about an ounce of marijuana and two 40-ounce bottles of Cognac. They were in Windsor for a total of six days, he said, to oversee the sale of drugs by Reaume and to recoup money from him.

Vilneus told court it was their last day in Windsor and they were running out of marijuana, so they called Reaume to deliver some product.

In the evening, around 9 p.m., Vilneus said their wheel-man, “Drayson” arrived shortly before Reaume and his girlfriend, Gingras, showed up at the motel with the marijuana.

Vilneus then described an angry confrontation between Reaume and Gingras, where Vilneus heard Gingras admit to Reaume that she set him up for a home invasion where Reaume was robbed of tens of thousands of dollars and a stash of drugs. A video of the home invasion was shown Wednesday in court.

“How could you do this to me?” Vilneus recalled Reaume asking Gingras.

After a very physical shouting match, Vilneus testified Reaume grabbed a strap from a bag and used it to choke Gingras.

Vilneus said everyone in the room said, “Whoa, whoa, don’t do that,” and Reaume eventually stopped.

“I told them to stop fighting,” Vilneus told the jury, indicating Reaume was frantically pacing back and forth in the room.

Vilneus said Reaume then grabbed a sandwich bag containing fentanyl off Gingras, broke off a piece, handed it to her, and she put it in her mouth, then gave her a small glass of Cognac from a nearby table.

Vilneus said his partner, Rolle, then told them to leave, which they did.

Vilneus testified Reaume and Gingras left together and that’s the last they saw of the pair.

He then testified the Kitchener crew, now including wheel-man Drayson, got into Drayson’s car, fuelled up at a nearby gas station, grabbed some snacks and got on the road.

It wasn’t until afternoon the next day when Vilneus said he learned of the shooting from his supplier Don.

“Don told me Reaume got shot. Reaume and his girlfriend got shot,” Vilneus told the court. He claims he didn’t know the extent of the injuries until days later.

Much of what Vilneus said on the stand Wednesday diverges from Reaume’s version of events, where Reaume earlier told the jury that the three men, he and Gingras left the motel together in his car. In earlier testimony, Reaume pointed at Rolle as the person who shot Gingras in the head from the backseat of the car.

Frank Retar, the defence for Keermaro Rolle, asked a series of pointed questions to Vilneus, including whether he played Russian roulette by pointing a gun at Reaume at any point that evening.

“Yeah, I heard him (Reaume) say that. It did not happen,” Vilneus responded.

Retar asked Vilneus if he was in the back seat of Reaume’s car at any point and whether he participated in the planning and premeditation of the shooting, to which Vilneus responded “no.”

“Do you know who shot Madisen Gingras? Do you know who shot Jacob Reaume?” asked Retar.

To both questions, Vilneus said “no.”

The trial is set to resume again Thursday at 10 a.m. in Superior Court.