Judge found guilty in rare murder trial; killed wife, court says

QUEBEC – A retired Quebec judge has been found guilty of murdering his invalid wife.

Jacques Delisle is believed to be the first Canadian judge tried for murder in Canadian legal history.

A jury came down with the first-degree murder verdict this afternoon at the Quebec City courthouse. It had been deliberating since Tuesday.

The retired Quebec Court of Appeal justice was accused of first-degree murder in the slaying of his wife, Marie-Nicole Rainville, on Nov. 12, 2009.

Delisle’s lawyer claimed that Rainville committed suicide.

The prosecution told a different story: that the 77-year-old ex-judge shot his wife because she was an obstacle to his plans to live with his former secretary, with whom he was having an affair.

Authorities had originally agreed that Rainville’s death was a suicide. But a police investigation eventually led detectives to a different conclusion. Delisle was arrested and charged in June 2010.