The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
With the courts deciding there is enough evidence for a trial, the man charged in the 2011 death of a young Flin Flon woman says he cannot recall what happened the night she died. James Desmarais said he remembers blacking out and then waking up to find that Raylene Dawn Grant, 21, had died in the hotel room both of them were in. 'I'm not saying I did this. I'm not saying I didn't do this. I'm saying I don't remember doing this, okay,' said Desmarais, who is in custody at The Pas Correctional Centre. 'I don't remember what happened, that's the truth.' Speaking to The Reminder in a phone call he initiated last week, Desmarais, 46, also denied confessing to murder to the Flin Flon RCMP as the police have maintained. 'I don't know what happened. Same thing I told the cops: I blacked out, I came to, the lady was passed away, okay,' said Desmarais, a Flin Flon resident who repaired computers until his arrest shortly after Grant's passing. 'I never told (the police that I confessed). They said I confessed to this, ask them to show their so-called confession. Ask them to show it.' Asked whether he was asserting that the RCMP fabricated his confession, Desmarais replied, 'Yes they did.' Desmarais said that on the night in question, Grant was in his room at the Royal Hotel. He said they knew each other and that she had come to his room for drinks after they dined out. Desmarais said that after he saw that Grant had passed away, he went to the RCMP station to inform the police. 'I went there, I told them that she was there (in the hotel room), I said it looks bad on me because it was my room, but I never, ever said 'I did it,'' said Desmarais. 'Ask them to show this to you. Ask them to show you where it says I did this. It's not there.' But Todd Rambow, the Crown prosecutor in the case, tells a different story. 'What I can tell you is that (Desmarais) initially attended _ you see, what started this whole thing off was him attending to the police detachment _ and he made certain comments to them implicating himself right at the front desk,' Rambow said. Rambow said Desmarais, who is charged with second-degree murder, then 'made additional comments implicating himself' when he was arrested and read his rights. Recorded Rambow said Desmarais' first comments were recorded in the notes of an officer, as the RCMP did not initially know why he was stopping at the station. 'The additional more formal part of the statement, though, is audio, video, the whole nine yards,' said Rambow, 'because at that point they obviously realized they had to investigate this and they followed procedure at that point.' Telling his version of events, Desmarais did not have an answer when asked why be blacked out the night Grant died. Police have said the death was caused by asphyxiation. 'I don't know. I know I was drinking in the evening and during the day,' Desmarais said. 'I don't know what happened, okay. I don't know why I blacked out.' At the time, Desmarais said, he had been staying at the hotel room 'for a few days.' Asked what he would say to residents who may have prejudged the case because the RCMP said he confessed, Desmarais wasn't sure how to respond. 'I don't know how to answer that. I don't know how to answer that. But I know it's a great loss for her to be gone,' Desmarais said. See 'Direct...' on pg. 12 Direct indictment means no preliminary inquiry Continued from pg. 1 Added Desmarais: 'I wish none of this would have happened, you know what I mean?' In part because of his confidence in the evidence against Desmarais, Rambow recently, and successfully, filed for a direct indictment in the case. That means a preliminary inquiry, which had been scheduled for this week to determine if there was enough evidence for a trial, has been cancelled. The case will now go straight to the Court of Queen's Bench in The Pas, as Rambow does not do Queen's Bench criminal trials in Flin Flon. Rambow, who is based in The Pas, said 'the nature of the evidence in this case...lent itself to doing a direct indictment.' The case, Rambow said, does not involve 'a lot of disreputable witnesses or those sorts of things,' so it was felt that a preliminary inquiry 'wouldn't really add much to the proceedings and would use up a lot of court resources and cause significant delay in the prosecution of the matter.' Insistence Up to this point, Desmarais has not been required to enter a plea, though his insistence that the Crown prove its case is seen as a de facto not guilty plea. Desmarais confirmed he will indeed plead not guilty when the time comes. A plea will be required when he is arraigned at a date not yet set. Desmarais said he just fired his lawyer because he did not feel he was doing his job. He said he's not sure what will happen at his next court appearance, slated for April 8, since he will apparently not have representation by then. Rambow said it does indeed appear Desmarais and his The Pas-based lawyer parted ways once the direct indictment was granted. Desmarais has been in custody since being arrested for the Oct. 31, 2011 death of Grant. He has never applied for bail, Rambow said. Desmarais phoned The Reminder from The Pas Correctional Institute last Tuesday afternoon, March 26. He said he wanted to state that he had fired his lawyer and then agreed to answer questions. After receiving the phone call, The Reminder confirmed through a Manitoba Justice spokesperson that the man who placed the call was indeed Desmarais.
