MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO KILLING DEALER

After killing and robbing his drug dealer, Romain Bourque thought
heaven was no longer an option and set his sights on a fiery suicide
instead.

In B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria Thursday, the 31-year-old pleaded
guilty to manslaughter and arson. He admitted he caused the death of
Scott Muir, 26, by suffocation when he bound and gagged him around
Feb. 10 this year.

Prosecutor Ruth Picha said Bourque took cocaine and $1,000-odd dollars
from Muir and spent several days in hotel rooms in Victoria and
Vancouver. Then he returned to his North Saanich home on Meldram Road
- -- and to Muir's body.

"I was going to go bury him and then I thought ... I'm already going
to hell," said the native of Shediac, N.B. in a statement recorded by
RCMP and read by Picha in court.

"I might as well just ... burn the house down, burn my selves in it
and that will be that," said Bourque.

But the fire took too long to get going, so Bourque took his .22
rifle, tucked it under his chin, and fired. But the bullet went into
his chin, through his tongue, up through the roof of his mouth and
then exited between his eyebrows.

With smoke making it impossible to find another rifle shell, Bourque
decided to flee. He ran next door to a neighbour who called 911.

Picha said an overall sentence for the arson and the manslaughter
should range from 12 to 15 years.

Bourque's lawyer, Mayland McKimm, said a sentence in the range of five
to seven years is appropriate because his client had never intended to
kill Muir.

Desperate to return to his home town, Bourque had hatched a plan. He
would rob his drug dealer, known only as "Buddy" and use the proceeds
to go back to Shediac, where he grew up.

"It wasn't a good plan, these cases never are," said
McKimm.

But after a two-week cocaine binge, Bourque wasn't thinking clearly.
He called Muir and had him come to his house, where he was growing
marijuana. Muir was expecting to exchange cocaine for pot.

When Muir showed up, Bourque met him at the door with an unloaded
shotgun and told him to hand over his drugs and money. Muir was then
forced to lie down. Bourque bound his hands and legs. The plan was to
leave him bound so Bourque could get out of town before any reprisals
came his way.

But Muir started to scream, so Bourque stuffed a sock into his mouth
and taped it shut with hockey tape. The obstruction and the tape
caused Muir to suffocate.

McKimm said his client was a university graduate and a longtime member
of the Canadian Armed Forces reserves. He had done a peacekeeping tour
in Yugoslavia and had come under fire.

Bourque is remorseful and has never tried to shirk the blame or
responsibility for what has happened, said McKimm.

At the end of McKimm's remarks, Bourque rose and expressed his regret
for the pain he has caused his own family and Muir's, gathered in the
courtroom.

"No parent should have to bury a child," said Bourque adding he knows
that having Muir killed in a crime must make the loss even tougher to
bear.

"Every night I pray and ask God to give Scott's parents the strength
to carry on," he said. "I deeply am sorry for taking Scott from you."

Justice Catherine Wedge reserved her decision on Bourque's sentence
until today.