A man who killed a woman by mistake while wanting to kill his
estranged girlfriend has been found guilty of second-degree murder in
Canada.
The Court of Queen's Bench decision was handed down on Thursday in the deadly shooting of 30-year-old
Nicole Leanne Cooney in Edmonton's Inglewood neighbourhood.
Prosecutor
Aleisha Bartier told the court that
Lenny Lavallee shot Nicole while intending to kill
Theresa Butler, her friend, and his girlfriend.
According to him, during Lavallee and Butler’s three-month relationship,
he often became jealous of other people in Butler’s life, and
threatened to kill her and her dog on multiple occasions.
Before
Cooney was shot, Butler was hiding from Lavallee at his mother’s house
and trying to make plans to leave the city, Bartier said.
On the night of April 17, 2016, Butler went out to walk her dog and ran into Cooney, who joined her.
Butler, who testified during the trial, said she heard Lavallee shout
at her, and when she turned, she saw him standing behind Cooney.
“She yelled at Nicole to run, but it was too late. Nicole was shot through the heart and the lung,” Bartier said.
As nearby residents rushed to help Cooney, Lavallee fled to an
acquaintance’s nearby home and hid in the attic, remaining there for
five hours while a police tactical unit tried to convince him to come
out.
Bartier acknowledged she and fellow prosecutor
Mark Van Manen’s
case is circumstantial, but said the evidence taken all together makes
it clear he took steps to carry out the shooting, only getting his
intended victim wrong.
“The evidence of planning and deliberation is unavoidable,” Bartier said.
A woman who tried to help the victim at the scene testified in court
and said she overheard a man say he had shot the wrong person.
"He came up to the front of the house, he was just looking," Shanlai Cook said. "He just said, 'I shot the wrong one.' "
A date for sentencing has yet to be set.
