Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

This former Canadian school principal has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering two men with a gun in a house where drugs were sold.

Claude Guimond, former principal of Sagkeeng Anicinabe High School in Manitoba, Canada has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 14 years for the double murder which occurred in 2017.

According to media reports, Claude Guimond pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in March after a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the deaths of Jody Brown, 43, and Steven Chevrefils, 35.

Local media report that the bodies of the two victims were found in a house in the village of St George in the province of Manitoba on 28th February 2017.

Guimond told the court that on the night of the murder, after several days of drinking, he painted his face black, put on camouflage clothing and went to the victims’ home with a rifle.

Local media report that he was told that there were several other people in the house, which was used to sell drugs and grow cannabis.

Guimond reportedly attacked the victims in the basement. Jody Brown was shot there, while Steven Chevrefils fled upstairs. He was found in the kitchen with gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

Guimond says he has no recollection of the assault, only that he caused harm.

The defence maintains that it was an act of “vigilante justice” against drug trafficking in the community, which affected members of the convict’s family, including some of his children.

According to the judge, Guimond was disturbed by his two daughters’ drug addiction and felt that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had not done enough to stop the drug trade in the area.

The police found DNA on a shell casing and on Chevrefils’ hands, which led them to Guimond.

The suspect admitted his guilt in a telephone conversation with his family, which had been tapped by the police, according to media reports.

Reports say that Guimond spent three years in the armed forces before working for 24 years in education, first as a teacher and then as a school principal. He was granted a leave of absence in 2017 to care for his dying wife. She died shortly before his arrest in 2018.

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