The first-degree murder trial for a 29-year-old man accused of killing two New Brunswick seniors in 2019 began in Moncton on Tuesday.
Janson Bryan Baker is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Bernard Saulnier, 78, and his wife Rose-Marie Saulnier, 74.
The couple was found dead in their home in Dieppe, N.B., on Sept. 7, 2019.
RCMP announced the charges against Baker in 2023, on the fourth anniversary of the couple’s deaths. At the time the charges were laid, Baker was an inmate at the Atlantic Institution, a maximum-security corrections facility in Renous, N.B.
Baker formally pleaded not guilty to the charges this past Saturday, as jury selection began.
In the Crown’s opening statement on Tuesday, prosecutor Brad Burgess told the court the Saulniers’ deaths were collateral damage in an attempted murder of their son as part of retribution for allegedly betraying a drug trafficking ring.
“An elderly couple dead (was) killed in their nightclothes in their own home,” said Burgess. “You’re probably already asking yourself how and why.”
Burgess said their son, Sylvio Saulnier, was involved with the trafficking ring, which included Jesse Todd Logue and Nicholas Daniel Bain.
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Baker, Logue and Bain are also charged alongside Christopher Allen Lennon and Monique Alicia Boyer with conspiracy to murder against Sylvio.
Sylvio died in 2023 but police have said there was no criminality in his death.
The jury heard Tuesday that Logue was arrested 10 days before the murders of Sylvio’s parents after RCMP raided several buildings, including a duplex owned by Sylvio.
The Crown alleges this created “a rift” and that Logue and Bain exchanged messages expressing their belief that Sylvio was a police informant and a ‘rat.’
Burgess said Bain directed Baker to kill Sylvio in retribution for his suspected betrayal.
The Crown alleged in its opening statement that Baker shot the couple after he broke into their home to look for Sylvio, who was not at the residence.
The couple was found dead later that morning by Sylvio’s former girlfriend, Nadine Vosburgh, who was the Crown’s first witness.
Vosburgh was emotional as she described finding the bodies in their bedroom. Rose-Marie was on the bed, while Bernard was on the floor. Both had been shot in the head.
The Crown also alleges Baker stole a gold watch and necklace from Bernard, and a photo of Baker apparently wearing the items was shown to the jury.
The trial is expected to continue over the next three months.
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