SAINT-JEROME, Que. - An inmate who made a dramatic helicopter escape from a Quebec prison in 2013 is facing two charges of first-degree murder and three of attempted murder.
The Crown has filed a preferred indictment against Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, meaning he will go directly to trial without a preliminary hearing.
He was already in prison when the charges were laid.
The first-degree murder charges relate to two shooting deaths that occurred within a week of each other in 2012.
The 38-year-old Hudon-Barbeau was quickly recaptured after using a chopper to flee the prison in Saint-Jerome in March 2013.
Hudon-Barbeau had been imprisoned as a result of weapons conviction in Niagara Falls in 2012.
He had previously been convicted of manslaughter in a double-shooting at the Upper Club on St. Laurent in 2006 but that conviction was overturned on appeal.
