Aylmer double-murder

New trial announced for Ronald (Jun) Brazeau

Bulletin staff

Amanda Trottier’s family will need to be patient. In early November, Justice Anouk Desaulniers ordered a new trial for Ronald Junior (Jun) Brazeau.

Justice Desaulniers was unable to rule on the charges due to contrasting stories presented by the Crown in court. 

This past August, Brazeau sought a stay of proceedings (proceedings dropped) which he almost obtained since the judge threw out the current case, but ordered a new trial which should take place this winter.

The conflicting stories that forced the judge to order a new trial stem from the fog around Brazeau’s orders to hitman René Samson Von Richter.

Brazeau was initially charged on two counts of first-degree murder in the double-murder case. He ended up pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in Travis Voutour’s death, but never agreed to take the blame for Amanda’s death.

In January 2014, Voutour was found dead inside a Terrasse-Eardley home with his girlfriend Trottier. Her daughter was found unharmed in their row house the day of the murders.

The Aylmer couple was killed in their Terrasse Eardley home by René Samson Von Richter, accompanied by Sonia Villion. Both are serving long sentences. Brazeau had asked Von Richter to intervene after Voutour stole drugs from Brazeau. At issue is what, precisely, Brazeau requested on the part of Von Richter and Villion.

In one narrative, Brazeau asked Von Richter to teach Travis Voutour a lesson. However, in a second narrative backed by presented evidence, Von Richter’s testimony, it is put forth that Brazeau hired Von Richter to kill.

Von Richter acknowledged in court that he had lied to police and his account of the fatal day contradicts Villion’s own account. This summer, the Crown and the defence negotiated in vain to avoid another trial. Following the failed negotiations, the judge ordered a new trial.