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Two days after brutally murdering his ex-partner Marie Gabriel, Jean “Berno” Fénelon returned to the scene of the crime and sent a text message to his older brother.

David Gabriel read excerpts of that exchange in an Ottawa courtroom Friday night after a jury returned with its verdict and found Fenelon guilty of first-degree murder after three full days of deliberations.

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“Something happened to Marie!” » was the beginning of the text his brother received on March 28, 2022 as Fénelon told a fabricated story to Gabriel’s family, then to the Ottawa police.

“I haven’t stopped texting her since Saturday after I left, then today I went to drop the kids off, knock knock and no response… I went to the basement, she was laying there… She wasn’t breathing at all.”

Fenelon continued to lie by claiming that he had left Gabriel alive and well on the morning of March 26 when his car was seen arriving at his Heatherington Road townhouse at 11:42 a.m. and casually leaving 10 minutes later .

He told detectives he came across her lifeless body two days later in a pool of dried blood in the basement, where police would find Gabriel’s body, his bloody footprints and obvious signs of a violent struggle.

When David Gabriel sent the tragic news to his father, Andy Stone, who had been estranged from his children for years and living in the United Kingdom, Stone immediately replied: “F***ing Berno did it.” »

Stone and his son attended the six-week trial in Ottawa every day, and he took the witness stand to testify about the desperate messages his daughter would send from abroad.

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She sent a chilling text to her father in November 2021 after fleeing threats and verbal abuse from Fénelon.

“I just wanted to let you know, in case anything happens to me or my kids, just know that I tried,” she wrote.

“Last night I took the children and left their father’s house because I feared for my life and theirs as he started saying things that made people fear for their lives. I’m in a safe place right now, I’m letting you or anyone know that.

Stone called Fenelon a “bully” and a “coward” in the courtroom as he read his own victim impact statement after the verdict.

“I pray no other parent has to read a text message like that,” he said.

Gabriel had fled the Gatineau home she shared with Fenelon and stayed with her two young children in an Ottawa shelter, then a hotel before finding subsidized housing at the Heatherington townhouse.

Fenelon “manipulated” his way back into her life when their daughter fell ill, according to the Crown’s timeline, but Gabriel quickly ended the relationship and kicked him out again.

Prosecutors presented texts that Gabriel sent to Fénelon weeks before she was killed when she told him, “I don’t want anything to do with you.” »

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Fenelon was furious, according to the Crown’s theory, because she had finally ended their relationship and had recently started dating another man.

The violence that erupted inside Gabriel’s home at 1485 Heatherington Rd. on March 26, 2022, was the “culmination of seven years of conflict” as Gabriel attempted to flee the “tumultuous and toxic” relationship. and to cut ties with the “power of control”. , aggressive, verbally abusive,” Fenelon Crown prosecutor Dallas Mack told the jury during his closing address last week.

Gabriel was on the phone with his best friend that morning when Fénelon showed up at her front door, then forced the back entrance. The last words her friend heard from Gabriel were her shouting at the intruder: “Get out of my house!” »

Fénelon cornered Gabriel in the basement, hit her in the back of the legs with a piece of wood, chased her, grabbed her and dragged her across the concrete floor, prosecutors said.

He ended her life with a 30-pound dumbbell that he smashed over her head, probably while she was lying on the bare ground.

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She died almost instantly, according to the testimony of forensic pathologist Dr. Christopher Milroy, as the killer delivered at least two “catastrophic” fatal blows to her with the dumbbell that gave way and shattered her skull.

“No mere stranger did this to Marie Gabriel,” Crown prosecutor Mack told the jury. “It was personal.”

Fenelon pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial on October 7 and his attorney, Ari Goldkind, chose not to call any evidence or witnesses to testify on behalf of the defense.

Goldkind raised the specter of a mistrial before the case officially closed Wednesday. Superior Court Judge Ian Carter informed the court that the jury sent a question to the judge asking for the “legal definition of animus.”

Crown prosecutors had used the term during their closing speech to describe the hostility and ill will Fenelon harbored against Gabriel as he led a campaign of criminal harassment that culminated in the murder.

The jury asked this question a day after the prosecution presented its final arguments to the jury; and just moments after Goldkind finished his own closing speech to the jury.

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Goldkind, as he pointed out to the judge, never mentioned “animus” during his hours-long closing speech.

The question, signed by “the jury,” also came before the judge delivered his final legal instructions to the jurors. The judge’s instructions represent the last important step in a jury trial before deliberations can begin.

Goldkind argued that the question suggested the jury began its deliberations prematurely.

“We’re in uncharted territory here,” Goldkind said Wednesday, suggesting the incident could lead to a mistrial. “Either it’s nothing or we wasted 22 days (of trial) here.”

The jury was temporarily excused Wednesday evening while the judge considered the Crown and defense arguments before ultimately deciding to follow through on his instructions to the jury.

Carter ruled that jurors were allowed to discuss the case before beginning formal deliberations, and said the question jurors asked did not suggest they had reached any foregone conclusions.

The jury, made up of nine women and three men, took three days to conclude that Fénelon was guilty of murder.

Goldkind requested that each member of the jury be questioned to ensure its verdict was unanimous. All 12 jurors confidently answered yes.

The first-degree murder conviction means Fénelon was automatically sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

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