People close to a 23-year-old man who was stabbed to death in the St-Laurent borough nearly three years ago had very emotional reactions at the Montreal courthouse on Friday when they learned the killer’s sentence.
“Two years is nothing,” one man yelled, while several people in the third-floor courtroom began to shout as Quebec Superior Court Justice Hélène Di Salvo sentenced Uriel Pépin Rojas, 23, for killing Liam Angelo Rodriguez.
Di Salvo managed to calm everyone down after repeating a second time that the case was one of the most complex she has ever presided over and that determining the sentence was a difficult task because of the context of the homicide.
The evidence heard at trial revealed Pépin Rojas was protecting himself from a brutal assault and had been stabbed when he killed Rodriguez. This happened during an argument over a woman.
The judge also advised the man who shouted to consider that the punishment Pépin Rojas received Friday is actually a seven-year prison term: When the time Pépin Rojas has already served behind bars since his 2023 arrest is calculated, he had two years and 11 months left on his sentence.
In May, prosecutor Philippe Vallières-Roland recommended a sentence of between 10 and 12 years, but he said it could be reduced to nine years if the court determined Pépin Rojas was acting in self-defence. Defence lawyer Pierre-Richard Deshommes suggested a sentence of between four and seven years.
After Di Salvo delivered her decision on Friday, one person was so emotional they were escorted out of the courtroom by the special constable assigned to the room. Other special constables were called in to help maintain order, but Rodriguez’s loved ones calmed down after a couple of minutes of shouting.
The outbursts began after Di Salvo said: “This case shook me up. The case was very complicated. I really hope, for the family of the victim, that this decision …”
“It isn’t fair what happened,” one of Rodriguez’s relatives said, interrupting the judge. “No one deserves what happened, because (Pépin Rojas) killed someone. Ten cuts from a knife, (one) was 15 centimetres (deep). It wasn’t a pocket knife.”
The woman’s outburst set off the loud commotion in the courtroom.
“I know this is emotional. I know it is difficult to hear,” the judge said while restoring order. “I know that a seven-year sentence is not a life sentence, but even a life sentence would not change anything.
“Your pain … I heard you (when Di Salvo heard sentence arguments in May). I felt it and I want to share with you that I will remember it the rest of my life because of all the difficulties it brought to me. No sentence would be sufficient for the family.”
On Oct. 1, 2023, Pépin Rojas travelled to a condo building on Alexis-Nihon Blvd. to see a woman he had been dating for nine months. As was described in a joint statement of facts entered into the court record late last year when Pépin Rojas pleaded guilty to manslaughter, he believed he was still in a relationship with the woman.
“(The woman) had another perception of the situation,” the document states.
On the day in question, Pépin Rojas made his way to the woman’s fifth-floor condominium. She was not expecting him and was surprised to see him at her door. He forced his way in and found the woman with Rodriguez.
The homicide victim delivered the first blow in the fight. The woman testified during the preliminary inquiry that Rodriguez assaulted Pépin Rojas severely for roughly two minutes.
Last month, during sentence arguments, Pépin Rojas testified that he was assaulted by fellow detainees at the Montreal Detention Centre following his arrest for the homicide. He alleged that he was told the assault was ordered by people who knew Rodriguez.
On Friday, Di Salvo listed the assault at the detention centre as one of the mitigating factors in determining the sentence. Other mitigating factors included Pépin Rojas’s guilty plea to manslaughter, that he had been defending himself and he sustained serious injuries.
The judge also noted that Pépin Rojas did not bring the knife used in the homicide to the woman’s condo and that Rodriguez delivered the first blow.