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Courtenay man guilty of second-degree murder in killing of ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend

Courtenay man Michael Philip Simard has been found guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the October 2016 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.
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Courtenay homicide victims Leanne Larocque and Gord Turner.

Courtenay man Michael Philip Simard has been found guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the October 2016 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

Crown prosecutors said Simard broke into a Courtenay home and shot Leanne Larocque and Gord Turner in the head in the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2016.

Police were called to the Urquhart Avenue home after neighbours heard gunshots. They arrested Simard, who had shot and wounded himself, at the scene.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson delivered his verdict Monday in Courtenay provincial court as the victims’ families sat in the public gallery.

Simard, 45, will be sentenced on May 7 and 8. A second-degree murder charge could carry a sentence of life in prison.

Larocque was the mother of two adult children, one of whom had a baby in May 2016, five months before Larocque was killed.