Mafia murder trial: Key witness finally testifies after refusing to answer questions

“No. I won’t be answering any questions,” the informant said in court early in the day. “Not from anybody.”

The informant who was used to investigate Dominico Scarfo as a suspect in the murders of Montreal Mafia leaders Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito began testifying Friday, but not before he caused a commotion by refusing to take part in the trial.

The man, who was the gunman in the May 27, 2016 murder of Sollecito in Laval, at first outright refused to answer questions from prosecutor Isabelle Poulin.

“So, are you ready to answer some of my questions?” Poulin asked as her first question of the day.

“No. I won’t be answering any questions,” the informant replied. “Not from anybody.

“F—ing me over is f—ing everybody over. It ain’t happening. No disrespect to you, your honour,” the informant said to the presiding judge, Superior Court Justice Michel Pennou.

The informant expressed concerns that he would end up being charged with the murders.

He then launched into a series of profanity-laced rants, including a claim that he had been “f—ed in the a–” by the Sûreté du Québec and that his contract with the police is not being respected.

At one point, Pennou interrupted the informant and asked if he was “aware of the possible consequences of refusing to testify.”

“You’re going to use all my admissions against me and, in the next trial, I’ll be the one to be charged with all these things. Right?” the informant asked. “I’m under arrest. So what’s going to happen to me? You’ll put me back in prison where I was. Come on. That’s not a threat.

“So what’s the point of me playing ball with you? I’m still getting f—ed over in the end.”

Three years after he killed Sollecito, the informant decided to work with the Sûreté du Québec. During the summer of 2019, he was used to secretly record conversations he had with Scarfo.

Pennou told the jury to take a break while he dealt with the situation.

In a trial like this, the media are limited to only reporting what a jury sees and hears. The Montreal Gazette is not allowed to report on what was said outside of the jury but, about an hour later, the informant was willing to testify.

“Let’s get directly into the heart of the matter, if you will allow,” Poulin said as soon as the trial resumed. “Can you tell the jury how Rocco Sollecito died?”

“He was shot by me,” the informant said. “I think it was 10, 11 rounds. I’m not sure how many bullets hit him, but multiple shots to the body.”

The informant said that while he killed Sollecito, at an intersection on St-Elzéar Blvd. in Laval, Scarfo took part as well. He said he waited in a bus shelter for Sollecito to arrive in his BMW and Scarfo positioned a vehicle in front of the BMW.

The plan was “that Dominic would come in front of Rocco Sollecito and a proper stop, like a three-second stop,” the informant said. “When Dominic does the stop, I see Rocco, I pull the gun out. I look at him. He looks at me. I stayed relaxed and (fired off) the first two rounds, right through the (passenger side window) glass. I shot him (once) and then I unloaded the clip into Mr. Rocco Sollecito.”

“So you were waiting for that to happen,” Poulin asked.

“Yes,” the informant replied.

Later on in his testimony, the informant said Sollecito “didn’t panic. He just stayed there. I thought he was going to hit the gas and ram Dominic, but he didn’t.”

The informant said a third man, an alleged accomplice whose name cannot be published for the time being, was the person who gave him and Scarfo the signal that Sollecito was on his way. The alleged accomplice gave them the heads-up by driving past them on a motorcycle.

“So when (Scarfo) saw (the alleged accomplice) ride by, he knew it was his time to get in front of Rocco, to immobilize Rocco, so I could do what I had to do,” the informant said.

He referred to the alleged accomplice as “the king of the a–holes” after recalling something that happened just before the hit was carried out. He said he was brought to the home of the alleged accomplice’s brother-in-law to prepare that morning.

The alleged accomplice “was playing around with the guns, like he always does, like he is in a movie. I told him: ‘Don’t do that. Sometimes the gun is loaded,’ ” the informant said. “And then the bullet goes off — into the wall in the garage.

“He could have shot me. He could have shot anybody in the house.”

During the first week of the trial, the jury was shown photos illustrating how police officers found evidence inside the garage that someone had covered up the damaged wall with tiles.

This article was originally posted here