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Police find Kevin Smith dying his hair - Snowmobile theft led to arrest |
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Escaped killers Kevin Smith, 36, and Patrick James Wallace, 32, will be back in Laval penitentiary by today pending charges connected to a Sawyerville armed snowmobile theft and the robbery of a depanneur. 
The two are each suspected of two counts of armed robbery and conspiring to commit armed robbery, this following their escape from Laval’s Montée St. Francois Federal Penitentiary in October. According to Sûreté du Québec spokesman Louis Philippe Ruel, a weekend spree led police to the pair on Sunday mid afternoon in Rock Forest.“For the past few weeks we heard nothing. It was quiet,” said Ruel. “We continued to conduct stake outs, but it was definitely all their activities over the weekend that led us to them.”Police attention stems back to the wee hours of Sunday morning when two people robbed, at gunpoint, a snowmobile from an individual in the parking lot of the Hotel Sawyerville.The hotel’s owner, Carole Vincelette, said the pair had never entered her establishment before. “I was inside working and I didn’t see it myself,” saidVincelette. “The person that was robbed comes in once in awhile, but I can’t talk about what I didn’t see myself.”She said neither Smith and Wallace entered her establishment that night, although police believe the pair was involved in the theft.But police also say that a third person, another man, was leaning up against a pick-up truck and left the lot with Smith and Wallace.The SQ soon arrested 24-year-old Skylar Williams near the Montjoye ski resort in North Hatley. He is charged with aiding and abetting, as well as being an accomplice to the Sawyerville snowmobile theft. He has been released on bail.Williams is a nephew to the North Hatley-raised Smith, who has been a fugitive since Oct. 9.“It was not until Williams’ arrest and running finger prints that we knew we were looking for them,” Ruel said.Police ended up at a Rock Forest home where they believed Smith and Wallace to be hiding out. At around 3 p.m. Sunday officers broke down an apartment door and arrested both both men, as well as the couple who rent the residence, on suspicion of aiding and abetting. The couple and her husband, will be in court later this week.Police claim Smith and Wallace were in the midst of getting their hair dyed in an effort to change their looks.Police believe Smith, Wallace, and Williams to be responsible for the armed robbery of a Boulevard Bourque Depanneur last Friday in Sherbrooke, where cash and cigarettes were taken, as well as the plotting of another like theft in Johnville.According to a sibling of Smith’s, whom The Record has agreed not to name, the pair must have never left the Townships following their escape from jail.“Thank God no one was hurt,” the sibling said in the Sherbrooke courthouse on Monday, while Smith and Wallace were meeting with their defence lawyer, Mia Monocchio.“I didn’t know anything until I got home from work on Sunday and my friend called me to tell me she had heard he was arrested. This whole thing has been so hard on the family. All I want to hear are the facts and where he is going. There’s too much speculation going on.”The sibling does not believe Smith to be dangerous and said the situation has been devastating for the family. “No, I don’t think he is. He has no reason to be. He wanted his freedom. Why he stayed in the area I have no idea. I worry so much for my (73-year-old) mom. She is a nervous wreck. She didn’t know anything about this until reporters started calling her.”After receiving a tip that Smith had been hiding out at his North Hatley family home, police raided the Capelton Road house but didn’t find their fugitive.“We suspected that he had been there and we suspect that someone in the family has made contact with him, but we have no proof,” the SQ’s Ruel said. “Right now our focus is on Smith and Wallace.”The sibling said no one was involved in Smith’s escape from jail. “I had no idea that he was going to escape. None of us did. We found out like everyone else — the news,” said the sibling. “We were extremely close right up until he had been in jail for five years. He was arrested in ’91 for aggravated assault against a pizza delivery guy and he was being held at Sherbrooke’s Talbot prison. He escaped and after he had been out for three months he committed murder. I spoke to him a couple times in Montreal.“He was given a sentence of 25 years and eligible for parole after 13. While he was there he worked his way from maximum security to minimum because he earned himself brownie points for good behavior. While he was in there he was promised schooling, among other things, that he never got. He was denied parole after 13 years. Then 13 years turned to 16 and here we are. Our family is torn because of this and we don’t need all the sensationalism. We just want to get through this.”Smith was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991. New Brunswick’s James Wallace, with whom Smith escaped from Laval’s Montée St. Francois, was convicted in 1996. Within days, the SQ began receiving reports that the pair had been sighted in the Townships, and warned that the pair was considered dangerous.According to Ruel police do not anticipate any problems.“The whole time (Smith) was in our custody he was very calm. He was talkative and cooperative, not about what had happened during the weekend, but he talked about old times. He was fine when he was with us. How he will be with the Canadian Correctional Service I don’t know.”By Jen YoungFeb. 5, 2008 |
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Montreal Canadiens
