'I was worried for my safety': Witness takes stand in Windsor murder trial
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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Remembering legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole. Oh baby, what a life
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.