With the guilty verdict against Guy Turcotte now rendered, the court must now determine how much time he will spend in prison.
Turcotte is now facing an automatic life sentence, but the court must determine when he will be eligible for parole. He faces a minimum sentence of 10 years before being eligible for parole, but the judge can order him to remain behind bars without any chance of parole for 25 years.
The Crown and defence lawyers make sentencing arguments on Dec. 18.
A jury found Turcotte guilty of the second-degree murder of his two children, Olivier and Anne-Sophie.
Criminal lawyer Eric Sutton believes Turcotte will likely face a long sentence.
"In this case there are three aggravating factors, the first being it's a double homicide, the second being that the victims were children, they're minors, and the third being that he was in a position of trust, he's their father," said Sutton.
"So there are three militating factors that will all reflect in favour of a larger parole ineligibility and I suspect there will be a sentence reflecting that."
While the sentencing arguments will take place on Dec. 18, it is unlikely the judge will render a decision that day, so it is probably that Turcotte will only be sentenced in January 2016, nearly seven years after he killed his children.
Turcotte was out on bail during much of this second trial, but was taken into custody as soon as the guilty verdict was delivered.
The jury rejected the mental illness defence put forward by the defence, and also rejected the prosecution's argument that Turcotte planned the killings.
“For a first-degree murder it needs to be beyond a reasonable doubt, that there's nothing that could cloud his intention, and also, was it planned and intentional,” explained retired Quebec court judge Nicole Gibeault.
The jury went for the next option, second degree, non-premeditated murder.
“There are circumstances which suggest it was really at that time that evening that he determined he would kill his children, not something he concocted in advance, that he planned on and reflected on and prepared for,” said Sutton.
