Brigitte Serre's mother fights to prevent killer's release
17-year-old was stabbed to death by Tommy Gagné in 2006 while working at St-Léonard gas station
The mother of a murdered gas station attendant says she's doing everything she can to stop her daughter's killer from getting parole.
Seventeen-year-old Brigitte Serre was stabbed to death in January 2006, while she worked alone during an overnight shift at a gas station in Montreal's St-Léonard neighbourhood.
I don’t want Brigitte to have died for nothing.- Anna Lisa Repele, Brigitte Serre's mother
Tommy Gagné was convicted of second-degree murder in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole for 10 years.
As Gagné's parole hearing date nears, Serre's mother, Anna Lisa Repele, is petitioning his release.
“It’s not right … if you’re given 25 years, you should have 25 years. Had I known that at the time that the sentence was granted … then I would have probably appealed,” Repele told CBC's Daybreak.
“It’s not easy. I’m just trying to make a difference and I don’t want Brigitte to have died for nothing.”
Repele has started a petition and she hopes to collect 7,500 signatures. So far she's received 6,300.
Repele says she plans to file the petition on her daughter's birthday — April 15.
She hopes that correctional officers will include the petition in their review of Gagné's file.
Petition not likely admissible
Despite Repele's efforts, Montreal criminal lawyer Eric Sutton says there's a good chance her petition won't be reviewed by the parole board.
"You can’t help but feel sympathetic in such a tragic case, but with all respect I don’t think the petition will be even admissible at his parole hearing," Sutton told CBC's Daybreak.
"The parole board just doesn’t have jurisdiction to consider that type of evidence. They have jurisdiction to hear from Brigitte’s mother through a victim impact statement, they can consider the sentence itself and reports from the correctional authorities as to [Gagné's] progress, or medical information."
Repele says for now, she's just focusing on taking things one step at a time.
She says she's been receiving a lot of positive reaction and she'll continue to do everything she can to fight Gagné's release.