THREE PLEAD GUILTY IN DEATH OF DRUG MULE

Trio Admit Roles In Beating That Killed B.C. Man

THE MAN with half a million dollars of cocaine in a suitcase didn't
expect to collapse and die outside the bus station.

Graeme Ferguson, 27, died July 19, 2005, of an embolism caused by the
beating he'd taken while he was chained to a chair inside a Montreal
warehouse four days earlier.

He'd finally convinced his captors that he'd been worried about the
police presence outside the Voyageur bus station on Catherine St. and
left the drugs behind. They brought him to Ottawa to retrieve his bags.

The whole plan almost went off without a hitch.

Police say there was a car accident on Catherine St. on June 24,
2005, the day Ferguson first rolled into town. They had no inkling he
was coming in with a massive drug shipment.

Yesterday, Kym Tessier, 20, Guy Wilson, 39, and Michael Lemarbre, 21,
three of the men who inflicted the beating on Ferguson, pleaded
guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to kidnap and forcibly confine
Ferguson and conspiracy to possess cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Blue And Purple Bruises

Tessier and Wilson were both given nine years of jail in addition to
the six months of pretrial custody they've already served.

Paul Layoun, 27 and Tessier's father, Robin Cote, 40, remain at large
on Canada-wide warrants for first-degree murder.

Another man, Lafleche Boucher, stood in the prisoner's box with
Tessier and Wilson and pleaded guilty to forcible confinement,
extortion and robbery. Boucher was given 42 months in jail.

On Aug. 8, Carl Gagne, 23, quietly pleaded guilty to forcible
confinement and extortion for his role in the case. He got two years
in jail and three years probation.

Lemarbre, who co-operated with police and told them he witnessed
Wilson shove a knife into Ferguson's mouth and threaten to cut out
his tongue if he didn't talk, pleaded guilty two hours later in a
separate hearing. He received five years for his role in the beating
and as a supervisor of Ferguson's confinement.

He told police the chained man had blue and purple bruises on his
legs as a result of being smashed with a piece of wood.

Ferguson's assailants thought he'd stolen the drugs he'd been hired
to courier from B.C. Police estimate the retail value of the drugs
would have been $3.5 million.

"I'm really sorry," said Lemarbre in halting English before he was
sentenced. "It was not my plan to kill this guy. I have a sentence of
life inside me too. I'm truly sorry."

After yesterday's hearing, Ferguson's mother Marlyn said she has no
idea how her son came to be a drug mule. Graeme Ferguson had a
supportive family, a job as a security guard and no criminal record.

"The hopes and dreams we had for Graeme are shattered," she told
court in a victim impact statement. Her husband Ian has been off work
since January on disability because of depression.

"We will miss his wonderful sense of humour," she said recalling the
young man who relished mimicking his grandmother's Scottish accent
and loved Austin Powers movies.

Investigators learned this wasn't Ferguson's first trip to Ottawa.

Earlier in June he had travelled by bus from Vancouver and earned
$3,000 for that delivery. His girlfriend Emma Sharp told police she'd
seen the cash and the drugs before he left. They also heard from
Ferguson's friends that he'd bragged he was delivering drugs for "the mob."

Bogus Name

This latest trip was supposed to earn him $12,000.

As Ferguson lay dying, he told ambulance attendants he'd been
assaulted earlier in the day. A coroner who examined him determined
the wounds were inflicted about three days before and police followed
a trail of clues starting with a scrap of paper in Ferguson's pocket
on which a phone number was printed.

The number led to a bogus name and address, but a search warrant
revealed the people who called the number were associates of Cote.

Hotel receipts also found on Ferguson led to security video footage.

Lemarbre was captured on a security camera using Ferguson's bank card.

On July 26, 2005, Cote, Layoun, Wilson and Boucher were arrested by
Peel Regional Police. The men were stopped in an SUV with two loaded
hand guns, ammo, duct tape, rope and plastic ties, according to an
agreed statement of facts. Peel police theorized they were on their
way to rough up a local drug dealer. Layoun and Cote were later
released on bail in Toronto and fled.

"It has been determined that Paul Layoun and Robin Cote were doing
this job for someone who was the actual owner of the cocaine
shipment," Crown prosecutor Julianne Parfett told the court.

The men who pleaded guilty in the case were associates who worked for
them "whenever necessary," she said.