Jury finds Montreal man guilty of murdering fellow musician

Raymond Henry Muller was accused of killing his roommate, Cedric Gagnon, in 2018.

After lengthy deliberations, a Montreal jury found musician Raymond Henry Muller guilty of first-degree murder on Friday.

Muller, who is in his 50s, was convicted of killing 39-year-old fellow musician Cedric Gagnon, who had been previously reported missing. 

The prosecution argued Muller killed Gagnon, dismembered his body, and disposed of the remains in garbage bins in July 2018. 

Gagnon’s body has not been found since he went missing four years ago. At the time, friends of Gagnon waited several weeks before reporting his disappearance.

Muller detailed the murder in a notebook entry dated Aug. 30, 2018. The pages were discovered by police, who showed up to Muller’s residence to find him in critical condition in the bathroom, according to police testimony. 

Muller would later claim that these notes were not a recount of actual events, but song lyrics he was writing, according to his defence lawyer. 

"He basically was saying this was part of work that he’d been doing in a notebook that contained other song notes and chords," Jordan Trevick told CTV News.

During the proceedings, the defence argued that too little physical evidence had been uncovered to convict Muller, said Trevick, with no remains or weapon ever found.

"There was very little proof of any certain crime taking place where it was alleged to have occurred," he added.

Muller was brought to hospital and interviewed by police while crime scene analysts returned to examine the scene.