By Guy Page
Details of the November 8 murder of a Hardwick landlord by his tenant surfaced in a news report Friday.
“No alcohol, huh?” tenant Donald Brochu told landlord, Robert Marquis, 52, before fatally shooting him in their Elm Street, Hardwick home, the Caledonian-Record reported in a December 1 news story, “Presumed Shooter In Hardwick Killing Was On Probation For Criminal Threatening.”
Brochu, 55, fled the home, where he had rented a room, and hours later shot himself to death after being stopped by police. Marquis died of his wounds four days later.
Brochu had rented the room to Brochu, who was on probation for a conviction of criminal threatening. The report by editor Dana Gray cites tenant Dominic Smith, 27, as a witness, who said the shooting happened behind a closed door but that he could hear every word.
“Don came home and Rob said, ‘I need to talk with you a minute. My father isn’t here anymore. I still don’t want alcohol in here. Please don’t drink in the house anymore,’” Smith is quoted in the Caledonian. “(Marquis) said it so calmly, so nicely.” Smith said he heard “‘’No drinking, no alcohol, huh?’ and he shot Rob in the head.’”
The Dept. of Corrections was unable to act on Marquis’s protests about Brochu’s drinking, gun possession, and belligerent behavior, because none of those behaviors were covered by his probationary conditions, a Dept. of Corrections official reportedly told Marquis.
For more information, read the entire news story.