It was a toss-up in the Longueuil courthouse yesterday as to who was happier about Melanie Alix being locked up for life: her brother or her ex-boyfriend.

By The Gazette (Montreal)

December 23, 2005

It was a toss-up in the Longueuil courthouse yesterday as to who was happier about Melanie Alix being locked up for life: her brother or her ex-boyfriend.

Francois Alix, who is 18 months older than his 31-year-old sister, said as far back as he can remember, she has been manipulative and mean.

"She's very dangerous," he said of the sister who murdered their mother. "There's no limit to what she'll do."

Stephane Leblanc was beaming after the woman who murdered the couple's one-year-old son, Matisse Alix-Leblanc, was led out of the prisoner's box.

"I saw her face when she was sentenced and she looked disappointed, and that made me happy," he said.

Alix, a South Shore resident, maintained her remorseless demeanour as Quebec Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau sentenced her to the mandatory penalty of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

She was also sentenced to eight years in prison for the attempted murder of another person who cannot be named.

Once time Alix has already served is deducted, the sentence for attempted murder ends up being five years and two months.

The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Charbonneau stayed two arson charges.

It took the jury of seven women and five men six days to decide Alix is a killer who targeted vulnerable members of her own family.

Her brother agreed.

"She's dangerous, I know that for a fact," he said, adding he'd be having a nice Christmas and a "vacation" for the next 25 years that his sister is behind bars.

"I felt threatened by her and I knew she'd have no reaction because she doesn't feel responsible for what happened."

Alix blamed her brother for the death of their wheelchair-bound mother, Francine Levesque, in a 2001 house fire in l'Acadie, a town just west of St. Jean sur Richelieu. She blamed Leblanc for their son's death in a 2003 fire in St. Blaise, south of St. Jean.

Both Levesque and Matisse were found to have been drugged with the sleep-inducing antidepressant oxazepam, for which Alix had a prescription.

Investigators determined both fires were deliberately set.

Throughout her testimony, Alix portrayed herself as a perpetual victim: of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather, of adolescent sexual abuse by her brother, of rape and continual physical abuse by her ex-lover, of car accidents and of police torture.

Mother guilty in 2 murders

Hard as she tried, Melanie Alix failed to persuade a jury she was the victim.

By The Gazette (Montreal)

December 12, 2005

Hard as she tried, Melanie Alix failed to persuade a jury she was the victim.

On their sixth day of deliberations, the seven women and five men - who listened for almost two weeks as the 31-year-old South Shore resident recounted her troubled life in painstaking detail - instead decided yesterday that Alix is a cold-blooded killer who targeted vulnerable members of her own family.

Alix barely flinched as the jury found her guilty as charged of arson and first-degree murder in the death of her wheelchair-bound mother, Francine Levesque, in a 2001 house fire.

They also declared her guilty of arson and first-degree murder in the death of her one-year-old son, Matisse Alix-Leblanc, in a separate fire two years later, as well as a charge of attempted murder against another person who cannot be named.

The case hinged on evidence showing that both Levesque and Matisse perished of smoke inhalation long before firefighters and paramedics arrived, prosecutor Julie Beauchesne said after the verdict.

"It wasn't just the cause of death, it was the time of death that was important in this case," Beauchesne said.

There were also eerie and inexplicable similarities between the two cases that went far beyond coincidence, she said.

Both Levesque and Matisse were found to have been drugged with the sleep-inducing antidepressant oxazepam, for which Alix had a prescription.

Both fires were deliberately set, investigators determined. But they pointed out the flames had originated in multiple unconnected sites at different times.

For instance, one fire flared and died at Levesque's L'Acadie home on Jan. 31, 2001, allowing the air to cool enough for soot to settle on her prostrate body before a major inferno attracted calls to 911.

At Alix's white clapboard home in St. Blaise, fire scene analysts said there were six separate sites of origin for the May 12, 2003, blaze.

Firefighters discovered two charred chairs had been set alight in the living room but were already cold by the time they responded to a larger fire started on the stovetop.

During her trial in Longueuil, which lasted more than two months, Alix's defence team ultimately described her mother's death as a fatal accident.

But it also went to great lengths to cast suspicion on others for the two deaths. Alix openly blames her brother for her mother's murder and her ex-boyfriend Stephane Leblanc for her son's.

Beauchesne said the jurors saw through Alix's blame game.

"I find it unfair that the finger was pointed at Stephane Leblanc, the father of this child, who was not there that day, and at Francois Alix, who lost his mother in the fire," Beauchesne said.

The jury's verdict also undoubtedly turned on Alix's credibility.

Throughout her testimony Alix portrayed herself as a perpetual victim: of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather, of adolescent sexual abuse by her brother, of rape and continual physical abuse by her ex, of car accidents and of police torture.

Under cross-examination, Alix displayed not a hint of emotion in recounting her Sophie's Choice moment.

She described fighting thick smoke to reach Matisse's crib, but leaving the room without him because she'd written him off as already dead.

During her long days on the witness stand, Alix had an explanation for everything, but contradicted herself many times when confronted with her videotaped confession to police during an interrogation the day after Matisse's funeral.

Alix admitted to investigators in 2003 that she had drugged her children before setting a fire on the stovetop fed by oil from the fryer.

But in court she said the detective put words in her mouth and that she gave her children oxazepam only to calm them because they were concerned for her safety after their father threatened her with death.

Alix wrote a will the night before her son died.

On the witness stand, she said it was to make sure her children got her money if her ex killed her.

But the prosecutor pointed out to Alix the only mention of her children was that she wanted to be buried with them in the family plot.

After the jury was sequestered, Alix phoned the Journal de Montreal and declared herself the victim of an unfair trial, a prosecutor who was too congenial with the media and a judge she characterized as mean.

She also told the newspaper she would appeal any guilty verdict, bring a complaint against Quebec Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau and ask for an inquiry into the Surete du Quebec's handling of her case.

The jury also didn't hear that Alix set her clothes on fire while at Tanguay prison in a failed attempt at self-immolation and that she once was suspected of setting fire to Leblanc's Jeep.

Alix will automatically be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for the two murders.

But an arcane law prevents judges from handing down sentences on Sundays.

So Alix will be back in court today, when her sentence for the two arson counts and the attempted murder charge will also be discussed.