‘Burn in hell’: family of murder victim cheers as man, 24, sent to prison for life

A courtroom filled with grieving family members and friends of Mackaylah Gerard-Roussin erupted in applause as her killer was escorted out of court Friday morning to serve a mandatory life sentence in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Josh Benoit, 24, was convicted of first-degree murder on May 5, national Red Dress Day.

Gerard-Roussin, 20, was found buried in a storage tote on an ATV trail near Woodridge, about 60 kilometres southeast of Steinbach, on Aug. 28, 2022. She had been beaten and stabbed to death.

Benoit, who had pleaded not guilty, did not look at family members or prosecutors as they read from a dozen emotional victim impact statements or as he was led out of court amid shouts of “rot in hell” and “burn in hell.”

Court was provided no possible motive for the killing.

“There isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t think about her,” said cousin Serenity Roussin in a victim impact statement. “The question that haunts me the most is: Why? Why her?… She deserved to grow old.”

Benoit and Gerard-Roussin had known each other previously and lost touch before they reconnected in the summer of 2022, court heard at Benoit’s trial last spring.

Benoit’s plan to kill Gerard-Roussin began on Aug. 22 with a trip to a Canadian Tire store in Steinbach, where security video captured a man wearing sunglasses and latex gloves, purchasing a heavy-duty tote, three bags of concrete, a baseball bat, a tarp and rolls of duct tape.

The man paid in cash. An analysis of Benoit’s cellphone revealed it had been turned off at the time the purchases were made.

Three days later, Benoit messaged Gerard-Roussin at about 2:30 p.m. to ask what time she finished work. She told him 8:30 p.m.

Benoit turned his cellphone off for nearly five hours, during which time prosecutors said he drove to a rural property near Provincial Road 58 East and Highway 210 and dug a “clandestine grave,” its dimensions exactly matching those of the tote Benoit purchased three days earlier.

Witnesses testified seeing a man digging the hole that evening and a grey Mazda, later confirmed as belonging to Benoit.

That night, Benoit messaged Gerard-Roussin, asking if she wanted to “hang out.” When Gerard-Roussin suggested picking him up in her car, he quickly rejected the offer, telling her he was already in the vicinity of her Winnipeg apartment and it would be a “waste of gas.”

The afternoon of Aug. 27, Benoit drove to his mother’s home in Steinbach. He had a flat tire and called his father to help fix it.

Alexandro Ronaldo testified he went to the garage and finished installing a new tire when Benoit’s mother called out and told him to look in the trunk. He opened the trunk and saw a hand peeking out from a bin covered with a tarp.

Ronaldo said that while he was on the phone with 911, his son fled in the car.

Benoit was arrested that day following a police chase that ended with him setting fire to his vehicle. Police retrieved the charred end of a baseball bat from the car.

Prosecutor Danielle Simard read the bulk of the victim impact statements to court, her voice frequently choking with emotion.

Family members and friends described Gerard-Roussin as a mature young woman with an infectious laugh who worked two jobs and helped care for her younger siblings. They called Benoit a “monster” who robbed the world of an Indigenous woman of great promise.

“I am hurt, I am lost, I am numb,” said Gerard-Roussin’s mother, Melissa Roussin. “There is a big hole in my heart… I want (Benoit) to suffer. He should never see the light of day.”

Gerard-Roussin’s “energy was contagious, and her smile was unforgettable,” friend Samantha Maroochee said in her statement. “I hate that my family will never get to watch her grow into the amazing woman she would become.”

Gerard-Roussin dreamed of becoming a child psychologist, said her grandmother Irene Roussin.

“That was taken away because of Josh Benoit,” she said. “You had no right… How can one human being hurt another human being like Mackaylah, so polite, so kind, so loved?”

At the end of her statement, Roussin turned to the court gallery and asked: “Everyone ready?”

“We love you Mackaylah,” dozens of family members and friends shouted in reply.

King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond asked Benoit if he had anything to say before she sentenced him.

Benoit shook his head from side to side and said nothing.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca