Girlfriend of Moncton shooting victim describes his final moments to jury

A Moncton jury on Monday heard from Joedin Leger's girlfriend, who described the moments after the 18-year-old was fatally shot in their home two years ago.

Chantal Boudreau's testimony came on the ninth day of the jury trial of Riley Phillips, 20, who is charged with second-degree murder. It's alleged Phillips killed Leger on April 25, 2022.

Boudreau said she awoke around 6 a.m. that morning in the Logan Lane duplex that she had just moved into with Leger.

"He ran from outside, telling me he got shot, telling me to call 911," she recalled.

Boudreau said Leger stepped outside the home, blood began coming from his mouth, and then he collapsed on the ground outside the front door.

"Not long after that, he turned, looked at me and stopped breathing," she said, at times crying and halting between words. 

The Crown alleges Leger was shot during a home invasion and robbery involving Phillips and five others. 

Boudreau said she wasn't sure what woke her up, and that she didn't recall hearing anything.

She didn't see anyone other than Leger that morning until paramedics arrived, she said.

Crown prosecutor Stephen Holt asked the 42-year-old a series of questions about her relationship with Leger.

Boudreau said she met him in March 2022 after her apartment on MacBeth Avenue in Moncton was broken into, saying she didn't feel comfortable being alone.

She told jurors a mutual friend suggested Leger could stay with her.

"We became friends. There was never a plan of us becoming a couple," Boudreau said. "Eventually there was a connection."

By April, they were moving into the Logan Lane duplex together. Boudreau said Leger was "just so happy," planning to finish his high school education and making plans for the future.

Boudreau said she was working for Rogers remotely at the time, but said Leger was unemployed and that she was covering his rent and other costs. 

The day before he was shot, Boudreau said they saw Leger's family and drove around the region.

She took medication around 2 a.m. on April 25 and fell asleep. She said normally Leger would go to bed with her, but that night he was smoking marijuana elsewhere in the duplex.

Holt asked about Leger's drug use, and she said she was only aware of marijuana. Boudreau said Leger usually smoked around seven to eight grams per day.

Holt walked her through a series of photographs police had taken at the duplex, including of bags of marijuana

"This is going to sound very odd. We won a pound of weed from Big Cove," Boudreau said of several bags in one bedroom, using the former name for Elsipogtog First Nation.

She said marijuana that found in her Louis Vuitton purse in a separate bedroom was a gift she had bought for Leger.

That purse also held several ziplock bags filled with cash. The jury heard that $7,935 was found by police in the home after Leger's death. 

Asked by Holt where the cash came from, Boudreau said she liked to keep some cash around the house and attributed some of it to the proceeds of selling a duplex in Bathurst, where she had lived before moving to Moncton.

"I would just hide it," Boudreau said of the cash, saying she'd typically keep $4,000 to $8,000 in cash on hand, and that her 19-year-old son knew it was in the home.

Holt also asked Boudreau about several weapons found in the home, including a sawed-off shotgun and a homemade gun. 

"He went into the woods with a bunch of blanks and just made noise with it," Boudreau said of the homemade gun. 

She said she didn't know where the guns were before April 25. 

"They were nowheres in sight," Boudreau said. 

Holt finished his questioning Monday by asking Boudreau what she would say if someone suggested the cash was from selling drugs.

"Absolutely not. Why would I need to do something like that? That's ridiculous," Boudreau said. 

Finally, she was asked what she would say to someone suggesting Leger was there as her bodyguard. 

"A bodyguard, why would I need a bodyguard? He just came," Boudreau said, adding that she was "terrified" after her MacBeth apartment was broken into.

Boudreau will undergo cross-examination Tuesday.