Gas-station hit of Hells Angels associate was messy, court hears

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Frédérick Silva left a giant mess when he killed an affiliate of the Hells Angels at a gasoline station in St-Léonard.

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The Montreal police had loads of proof to collect after Sébastien Beauchamp was gunned down by the hit man outdoors an Ultramar on Dec. 20, 2018, together with a stray bullet that ended up lodged in one of many pumps.

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Silva was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide within the hit. Now, his alleged confederate, Giovanni Presta, 37, is on trial on the Montreal courthouse.

Proof throughout final yr’s trial revealed Silva chased Beauchamp across the exterior of the gasoline station on Langelier Blvd., close to Robert Blvd., earlier than he succeeded in killing him. Presta is alleged to have acted because the getaway driver.

On Monday, David Desrochers, the primary investigator in Undertaking Megalo, the investigation that led to the arrests, was known as as the primary witness in Presta’s trial earlier than Superior Courtroom Justice Marc-André Blanchard.

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The decide was proven a protracted collection of images as Desrochers described how one stray bullet ended up within the gasoline pump and one other travelled by the window of the Couche-Tard comfort retailer linked to the gasoline station and struck a again wall. He mentioned police discovered a parked automobile close by that was additionally broken by a stray bullet.

An post-mortem revealed Beauchamp was struck by 4 of the numerous bullets Silva fired off that afternoon.

Desrochers mentioned three firearms had been left on the crime scene and a number of other spent shell casings had been discovered outdoors the gasoline station.

A second witness known as to testify Monday, Victor Melo Gomes, an investigator with the Montreal police main crimes unit, advised the decide Silva was a needed man earlier than the day Beauchamp was killed.

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By then, Silva was a suspect within the 2017 tried homicide of Montreal Mafia chief Salvatore Scoppa, and the homicide that yr of Daniel-Armando Somoza-Gildea, a Concordia College scholar killed outdoors a strip bar in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

When police began the seek for Silva they discovered he had numerous ties to organized crime, Melo Gomes mentioned.

“We analyzed the surveillance reviews and the data at our disposal to see what could be the perfect path,” Melo Gomes mentioned. “I noticed hyperlinks with individuals tied with the Italian Mafia, the biker gangs and people from road gangs.”

Whereas being cross-examined by defence lawyer Dominique Shoofey, Melo Gomes confirmed police had a listing of 14 individuals who they suspected supported Silva whereas he was in hiding, together with Mario Sollecito and Vito Salvaggio. Each have been linked to the Montreal Mafia. Sollecito is the brother of alleged Montreal Mafia chief Stefano Sollecito, with whom Salvaggio has usually been seen.

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Melo Gomes mentioned police focused 4 individuals throughout their seek for Silva, together with Presta, Bernard Cherfan, 42, and Cherfan’s 26-year-old brother Rony. (Bernard Cherfan was fatally shot inside a Laval restaurant this previous June.)

Melo Gomes defined how police got here to suspect Presta was Silva’s driver on the day Beauchamp was killed.

The investigator mentioned a safety digital camera close to the scene of the capturing captured photos of a person who resembled Silva getting out of a white Chevrolet Malibu earlier than Beauchamp was killed. The digital camera recorded how the person adjusted a masks that utterly coated his face earlier than he headed off towards Langelier Blvd.

Investigators may see the person who exited the Malibu was not the driving force. They had been in a position to learn solely a part of the licence plate, however took word of different traits, together with injury to the suitable again facet of the automobile.

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“To us, from what we gathered from the scene, that was the automobile used within the homicide of Sébastien Beauchamp,” Melo Gomes mentioned.

On Jan. 30, 2019, two patrol officers knowledgeable Melo Gomes that they had noticed the automobile, and that investigators had been dispatched to grab it. The automobile was geared up with a GPS locator, which yielded essential info: The automotive had been parked at a storage place Presta had visited at the least twice whereas he was beneath surveillance. And it had travelled close to the Ultramar station the place Beauchamp was killed.

As effectively, on the day of the hit, the automobile had stopped at a Petro-Canada on Metropolitan Blvd. That station’s surveillance cameras offered “glorious photos” of Presta gassing up the Malibu, Melo Gomes mentioned.

Presta was on the Petro-Canada 19 minutes after the homicide. Footage confirmed him placing the automobile by the automotive wash there, and going into the station to buy two bottles of a product used to wash the inside of a automobile.

pcherry@postmedia.com