Old Montreal fire: 2 men in court on murder charges

The preliminary inquiry for two men who allegedly set fire to an Old Montreal building that killed a mother and her seven-year-old daughter in October 2024 began on Monday.

Juventino Hernandez Pelaez and Justin Fortier-Trahan each face two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Léonor Geraudie and her daughter, both French nationals.

“Doing that act and that crime, there was a potential for people to die,” explained Montreal criminal defence lawyer Kwadwo Yeboah. “So, given that two people actually lost their life, the Crown is going to go for second-degree murder.”

Montreal police allege Fortier-Trahan is suspected of throwing an incendiary device into the building while Hernandez Pelaez was suspected of driving a getaway car.

Minutes before the fire broke out, security camera footage obtained by Radio-Canada showed a masked person breaking into the building.

There is a publication ban in place during the preliminary inquiry on the witnesses, their testimony and any evidence.

“The publication ban is probably set up there to protect certain information that will come out,” Yeboah said. “Like we can say, if this goes to trial, there’s certain information that we want to keep away from the public and probably to protect victims, maybe to protect people that will be able to come and testify.

“So most of the time, the court does that, and also sometimes some certain information that the court doesn’t want out because it might taint a potential jury pool.”

The two accused, aged 18 and 20 at the time they were arrested, also face a charge of arson causing bodily harm and recklessly endangering life by causing damage to a property by fire or explosion. The suspects were both handcuffed in the Montreal courtroom on Monday.

The incident happened in a three-story building that had a restaurant-bar on the first floor and a hostel on the other two floors.

–With files from Gareth Madoc-Jones and The Canadian Press