Janson Baker found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in couple’s death – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca
Janson Baker has been found guilty on both counts of first-degree murder in the 2019 killing of a senior couple in New Brunswick.
The jury, which began deliberations on Feb. 26, delivered its verdict in a Moncton courtroom on Monday evening at around 7:45 p.m.
Baker, 29, has been on trial for two counts of first-degree murder in the 2019 shooting deaths of Bernard Saulnier, 78, and Rose-Marie Saulnier, 74.
The husband and wife were found dead in their home in Dieppe, N.B., on Sept. 7, that year.
RCMP announced the charges against Baker in 2023, on the fourth anniversary of the couple’s deaths. At the time the charges were laid, Baker was an inmate at the Atlantic Institution, a maximum-security corrections facility in Renous, N.B.
Baker’s trial began Jan. 3 and included more than 30 witnesses.
During closing arguments, Defence lawyer Brian Munro said the Crown did not prove Baker committed the murders or that his client was even in the couple’s house at the time, saying “there’s no physical evidence in this case of any kind against Janson Baker.”
Munro argued that much of the Crown’s case is speculative and also cautioned the jury against trusting the evidence of two key witnesses, including Zach Trevors, who had previously testified that he saw Baker in the Saulniers’ house with his arms raised and that he heard a scream.
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Munro said in his closing arguments that Trevors’ testimony had inconsistencies, saying “he is incentivized, he’s motivated not to tell the truth.”
However, Crown prosecutor Brad Burgess challenged that idea, arguing that a guilty finding is “the only rational conclusion.”
It has been the Crown’s assertion that the Saulniers’ deaths were collateral damage in an attempted murder of their son as part of retribution for allegedly betraying a drug trafficking ring.
Their son, Sylvio, died in 2023 but police have said there was no criminality in his death.
In his closing argument, Burgess said it was Baker’s testimony that was unreliable and that any inconsistencies between his witnesses’ testimonies only went to prove that they had not corroborated.
Burgess also said the charges of first-degree murder were warranted because he alleges the Saulniers were killed while being forcibly confined.
He concluded by saying, “It’s now Janson Baker who’s trapped. He’s trapped by the evidence in this case and the inescapable conclusion that it leads to.”
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