The trial for a man accused of killing a Montreal hair salon owner in broad daylight in her vehicle outside her business in 2023 began at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday.
Joel Richard Clarke is on trial for first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Claudia Iacono, the daughter-in-law of an alleged late mobster.
The 39-year-old Iacono was leaving the parking lot of her hair salon on Jean-Talon Street in Côte-des-Neiges on May 16, 2023, when a suspect dressed all in black pulled up behind her, got out of his vehicle, and shot multiple times into her driver-side window.
Crown prosecutors told the trial Wednesday Clarke travelled from Brampton, Ont., to Montreal prior to the murder, and he returned to Brampton immediately afterwards — according to GPS tracking of his cell phone and surveillance footage.
Police showed up to Clarke’s home the day after the murder in an unrelated case, the trial heard, where officers allegedly recovered the murder weapon and arrested him.
Two other men convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with Iacono’s death told a trial in January she was not the intended target of the shooting. Tyranne Andre Greenidge and Kalial Nesfield, who pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 18 years behind bars, told their trial the target was actually Iacono’s husband Anthony Gallo.
Gallo is the son of Moreno Gallo, who was considered a major figure in the Mafia until his assassination in Mexico in 2013. Anthony Gallo has long denied having any Mafia ties.
Iacono’s death came amid a series of high-profile Mafia-related killings or attempted murders in the Montreal area in 2023.
Leonardo Rizzuto, the son of former Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, survived an attempt on his life in March of that year after his car was shot at while he was driving on Highway 440 in Laval.
On June 5, Francesco Del Balso, an organized crime figure, was shot dead in Montreal’s West Island, with many saying it was linked to the attempt on Rizzuto’s life.
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