Woman sentenced to 2-year prison term for cleaning up crime scene following murder in Lachine

A woman who did nothing while her boyfriend was attacked and killed during a drug-fuelled party in a home in Lachine and then helped clean up the crime scene more than four years ago was sentenced Tuesday to a two-year prison term.

Superior Court Justice Lyne Décarie noted Tara Kusic’s criminal record as one factor she considered while determining the prison term, to be followed by three years of probation.

The Crown recommended a three-year prison term while defence lawyer Jordan Trevick suggested a sentence Kusic could have served in the community.

During the Labour Day weekend of 2021, Kusic, now 33, and her boyfriend Jimmy Méthot attended a party at the home of Véronique Manceaux on Rathwell St. According to evidence heard during Manceaux’s murder trial in 2024, drugs were consumed during the party and, at some point, Méthot was attacked by Manceaux and a minor.

The victim tried to escape, but he was assaulted, tortured, poisoned and killed.

Last year on July 11, Kusic pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to Méthot’s murder.

Jimmy Méthot, 27, was beaten, stabbed and forced to drink either paint thinner or lighter fluid before he died in September 2021. Les Résidences Funéraires Goyer

“The accused recognized that she was present at the home on Rathwell the night Jimmy Méthot was murdered. The accused admits she witnessed the victim being confined, assaulted, maimed and wounded by Véronique Manceaux and (the minor),” Décarie said while summarizing the joint statement of facts entered into the court record last summer.

“(Kusic) admits that following the death of the victim, she helped to wrap (Méthot) in a sheet or a shower curtain and moved the body into (Manceaux’s) garage.”

Kusic also admitted she helped Manceaux by buying cleaning products and helping to remove bloodstains and dispose of other evidence that might have been stained with blood.

The Montreal police found Méthot’s body stuffed in a barrel after Kusic told a friend what had happened. The friend called the police immediately and they searched Manceaux’s home.

In 2023, Everette Roger Clayton, who attended the party and sold drugs to Manceaux, also pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the murder. Like Kusic, Clayton was sentenced to a two-year prison term.

Besides Kusic’s criminal record, the judge also underlined how evidence found on Manceaux’s phone indicated she and Kusic made light of Mèthot’s death while they cleaned up the crime scene.

“Photos extracted from the phone of Véronique Manceaux, dated Sept. 8, 2021 (the day after the murder, including) eight photos taken in the living room (where the murder took place), show (Kusic and Manceaux) smiling and enjoying themselves,” the judge said.

A short video found on Kusic’s phone showed images of Manceaux vacuuming outside and inside her home, smiling and blowing a kiss while she smoked a cigarette.

“Véronique Manceaux is smiling and we can hear Tara Kusic say: ‘This is my wife. She vacuums indoors as well as outdoors’ followed by some laughter,” the judge said.

The images were recorded while Méthot’s body remained hidden metres away in the barrel inside Manceaux’s garage.

Kusic testified when she pleaded guilty last summer and the judge summarized her statement to the court on Tuesday.

“She had been in a romantic relationship on and off for about two years with (Méthot). At the time of the event, she lived at her mother’s house and looked for places where she could consume drugs and alcohol,” Décarie said. “When others were beating the victim, she asked them to stop but was told to sit down and shut up. She says she kind of froze. She mentions being scared and did not want to die. She could have run off to call the police, but feels she did what she had to do (to survive).

“She feels ashamed, she regrets what she did, and she’s very sorry.”

Kusic testified at Manceaux’s murder trial as well as the preliminary inquiry of the minor who took part in the murder.

In 2024, the jury that heard Manceaux’s trial found her guilty of first-degree murder. The conviction came with an automatic life sentence, and Manceaux will have to serve 25 years before she is eligible for full parole.

The minor who helped Manceaux was 17 at the time. On Dec. 3, 2022, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in youth court. He is serving a nine-year sentence.

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