MONTREAL- It took just a day of deliberation for a jury to find Claude Larouche guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old federal corrections employee Nathasha Cournoyer two years ago.
Larouche - who admitted to killing Cournoyer but blamed it on his over-consumption of cocaine - is also awaiting trial for an attempted murder on a prostitute that occurred less than two weeks after he killed Cournoyer.
And he is a possible suspect in the murder of Sonia Frappier, an escort whose body was found in front of a Chomedey Laval drycleaner in August 2009.
"He's a sick person, really sick and it's a good thing he's behind bars. I don't think there's any possibility that he could just be human," said the victim's friend Kristine Laflamme.
The verdict was handed down at the Montreal courthouse Thursday morning. The 49-year-old carpenter was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Larouche, a convicted sex offender, was on trial for the assault and murder of Natasha Cournoyer, a communications employee for the Correctional Service of Canada, who disappeared on Oct. 1, 2009 as she left her office in Laval.
She was kidnapped, bound, assaulted, raped, beaten and strangled.
Police arrested Larouche in Nov. 2009. He was charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.
Cournoyer's body was later found in Montreal's Pointe-aux-Trembles neighbourhood.
"The jury was able to understand what a wonderful person she was and the horrible way her life ended," said Laflamme.
When Larouche heard his sentence in front of a packed courtroom, he did not even bat an eyelid.
During the trial, the Crown had argued the killing was fuelled by sexual gratification.
Crown prosecutor Eliane Perreault told the jury of eight men and four women that Cournoyer never had a chance.
"Claude Larouche attacked a woman who was completely at his mercy," Perreault told the jurors.
"This murder was planned, premeditated and committed deliberately."
with files from The Canadian Press
