DDO man sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a woman over dog-waste

MONTREAL – A Dollard des Ormeaux resident has received a life sentence after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing a woman in September 2011 during an argument over where her dog relieved himself.

Michel Langlois, 51, appeared before Superior Court Justice Rejean Paul at the Montreal courthouse Friday morning where he pleaded guilty to killing Justyna Kozyra, 27, a woman who lived in an apartment building next to where Langlois’s boyfriend acted as a concierge. Among his responsibilities, the concierge tended to an outdoor area shared by both buildings.

According to a statement of facts read into the court record, Langlois’s boyfriend and Kozyra had argued often over how her dog defecated on the grounds where he gardened often. On the day Kozyra was killed, the concierge had asked the city of Dollard des Ormeaux to send a municipal security agent to the building and requested that Kozyra be fined.

When the agent approached Kozyra and told her about the fine, she realized immediately where the complaint originated from and Kozyra confronted the concierge while he was gardening. As the security agent watched, Langlois joined the argument stabbed Kozyra 14 times with a knife he’d been using to cut branches. She died later at a hospital.

Defence lawyer Charles Benmouyal, who represented Langlois along with Louis-Philippe Roy, said the homicide involved more than just a heated argument over dog excrement. He noted that Langlois had a history of psychiatric problems before he stabbed Kozyra and said his mental health worsened when he realized he had killed the young woman.

The lawyer said Langlois never intended to take the case to a trial, which was scheduled to begin next week, and always planned to plead guilty. Through a joint recommendation on sentencing, along with prosecutor Jacques Dagenais, Paul agreed to sentence Langlois to a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years. Benmouyal said the fact that Langlois had no criminal record and the amount of time the concierge and Kozyra had argued, over a period of months, were factors in determining the sentence recommendation.