Trial begins Monday for Quebec man accused of crashing Laval bus into daycare, killing two
Posted April 4, 2025 3:47 pm.
Last Updated April 4, 2025 5:28 pm.
The trial for Pierre Ny St-Amand, the driver of the Laval bus that crash into a daycare in February 2023 — killing two children and injuring several others — will begin on April 7.
Ny St-Amand, 53, was arrested after a Laval city bus crashed into the front of a daycare in Laval on the morning of Feb. 8, 2023. He was originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder and other counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault. However, court documents indicate the murder charges have been downgraded to second-degree murder.
CityNews sat down with criminal defence lawyer in Montreal, Kwadwo Yeboah, to talk about the trial.
The trial will be before a judge alone and will determine whether the 53-year-old was criminally responsible or not. What does that all mean?
KY: “Usually in a trial like this, it’s in front of a jury. This time it’s a trial that’s in front of a judge. And really, it’s just a formality. It’s the time where we’re going to hear all the evidence that they have against them. But like I said before, as the Crown attorney and the defence, they both understand that probably, a judge will pronounce that he’s not criminally responsible.”
What can we expect the judge to consider in all of this?
KY: “Well, since the beginning of this case, I’ve always said it was a case which was going to be a battle of experts. But at this time, the Crown’s experts and the defence attorney’s experts, I think, all came to the same conclusion: there’s no need to go tear our shirts in front of the judge or anything like that. So they’re both going to come to the conclusion. The evidence will be presented to the judge. And the judge has to pronounce that he’s not guilty or he’s not criminally responsible.”
How long do you think it might take for a judge to decide in this case and what happens if he is not criminally responsible?
KY: “If he’s not criminally responsible, it doesn’t mean that he gets to walk away like that and walk with us in society. He’ll probably be sent to Philippe-Pinel Institute. I don’t know if there’s other things that the Crown might be seeking, but they might be seeking to call him if he’d seek other things that they might ask, which can keep him behind bars for a long time, not bars, but at Philippe-Pinel Institute for a while.”
And how long do you think this might all take?
KY: “The whole process will take the three days. It can be that the evidence was very voluptuous, and they have to go through all the process. We might find out stuff that we never knew before and the judge will have to go through it and after listening to all the evidence, he will come to the conclusion.”
