A jury has found Michael Castiglione guilty of second-degree murder after he shot Jason Gallant in the head and dumped his body at a Hamilton park in April 2024.

During a two-week trial last month, Castiglione denied he had purposefully killed his acquaintance Gallant, 50, in a pickup truck, saying it was an accident.

The jury didn’t accept his version of events and reached a guilty verdict on Feb. 3. 

Castiglione will be sentenced later this year. While a second-degree murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence, Superior Court Justice Scott Latimer will decide when Castiglione is eligible for parole — after at least 10 years of imprisonment.

Before the jury decided the verdict, Latimer summarized what they’d heard throughout the trial.

On the night Gallant was killed, Castiglione was driving a borrowed orange pickup truck around the lower city with Gallant, his girlfriend at the time, Monica Wachzniuk, and another acquaintance, Shiloh Pettipas-Lizak, said Latimer. 

Wachzniuk told the jury she fell asleep in the truck’s front passenger seat and was awoken to Gallant punching her in the back of the head and ripping out a chunk of her hair.

“This understandably caused her pain and made her fearful of Jason,” said the judge. “He kept yelling at her and calling her a slut.” 

Castiglione didn’t intervene, Wachzniuk testified, and she told him to pull over. She got out of the truck near Burlington and Wentworth streets and began walking away.

Shattered glass, blood ‘everywhere’

Sitting in the back seat of the truck, Pettipas-Lizak testified he watched events unfold. Castiglione encouraged Gallant to move to the front seat, where Wachzniuk had been sitting. 

Castiglione then pulled out a rifle from under the back seat, walked to the front, driver’s side and pointed it at Gallant, Pettipas-Lizak told the court.

Pettipas-Lizak recalled Gallant then said to Castiglione, “What Mike, you’re going to shoot me?” 

Then he heard a bang. The passenger window behind Gallant shattered, and Pettipas-Lizak saw him slouch over, the court heard. There was blood “everywhere.” 

“Shiloh had blood and body fragments land on his glasses, which he had to wipe off,” Latimer said.

“Frozen in shock, thinking he’d be killed next, he scrambled for his bag on the floor, running away as fast as he could.” 

Pettipas-Lizak left town shortly after and was contacted by police a few months later, when he provided a statement. 

Castiglione tries to get rid of evidence

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Wachzniuk had heard a loud bang and turned around to see Castiglione running towards her holding a gun, said Latimer. Castiglione threw it over a fence and they returned to the truck, driving to Pier 4. 

She said she was in shock and helped Castiglione dump Gallant’s body at about 2:45 a.m., the judge said. Gallant was found by a woman walking her dog later that morning. 

About 24 hours later, a man out for a walk in the east end saw a person get out of a pickup truck and pour gasoline on it, the court heard. Then the truck exploded in flames.

Castiglione told the court he’d set the fire, not wanting to get in trouble for killing Gallant. 

In Castiglione’s version of events, Gallant had brought and drawn the gun and the two had tussled over it. That’s when Castiglione said he accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting Gallant in the head. He dumped his body and threw away the gun, also to avoid getting in trouble.

The jury concluded within a few hours that Castiglione was guilty of second-degree murder. Four jurors recommended the judge sentence Castiglione to no parole for 10 years, while seven jurors made no recommendations.