PICTURED: US chocolatier and ‘hitman’ charged in entrepreneur’s homicide
An American chocolatier accused of killing Canadian animation innovator Daniel Langlois and his associate has been pictured in handcuffs after being charged with homicide within the Caribbean.
Jonathan Lehrer, 57, and alleged hitman Robert Snider appeared on the Roseau Magistrate Court in Dominica on Wednesday to face fees for the murders of Langlois, 66, and Dominique Marchand, each from Quebec.
Snyder appeared to have extreme burns on his arm and leg, the CBC reported.
The two suspects weren’t required to enter a plea throughout their first court docket look and a decide ordered them to remain in custody till the following listening to, set for March 2024.
Langlois and Marchand have been ‘ambushed’ by a hitman who killed them after which set their automotive on fireplace, in response to police, who imagine the entrepreneur was murdered over a street dispute with Lehrer, his neighbor and proprietor of the chocolate maker property Bois Collette Inc.
The French-Canadian is named the founding father of Softimage, which created 3D animations software program for motion pictures like Jurassic Park, Men in Black and Star Wars.
He and Lehrer, who’s initially from New Jersey, had been concerned in a dispute over the utilization of the Morne Rouge Public Road, which passes by the chocolatier’s property.
Jonathan Lehrer, 57 (proper) and alleged hitman Robert Snider (left) appeared on the Roseau Magistrate Court in Dominica on Wednesday
The American businessman is accused of killing his neighbor, Canadian animation innovator Daniel Langlois and his associate Dominique Marchand
Daniel Langlois, left, and Dominique Marchand, proper, from Quebec, have been discovered lifeless inside a charred automobile close to the eco-resort they owned on Dominica
The battle reached the island’s state highest court docket, which dominated in 2019 that the street was public and could possibly be freely utilized by Langlois’ friends.
In court docket paperwork from 2019 seen by DailyMail.com, Langlois accused Lehrer of inflicting interference with the unobstructed and free use of the general public street’ for a minimum of 4 years.
On one event Lehrer reportedly ‘blocked the street by putting boulders throughout the street, digging a trench throughout the mentioned street, erecting metallic pipes and putting tools and provides on the street denying the claimants and their staff entry to their property’.
A neighborhood report from 2018 says a protest was staged on the street after ‘a land proprietor from Bois Cutlette’ blocked it.
Dominica News Online mentioned: ‘The residents, most of whom are staff at Petite Coulibri, have been unable to cross safely to get to work, and determined to protest the motion of the land proprietor.’
Speaking to Journal de Montreal (JDM) earlier this week, Lehrer’s father Robert dismissed the notion that his son could possibly be accountable for the horrific murders.
‘Jonathan is a profitable businessman, not a assassin. We are very shut, and he isn’t a violent man in any respect. I’ve a tough time believing it,’ he mentioned.
Dominica News Online beforehand reported that police had taken a complete of 4 folks in for questioning – Lehrer, his spouse, Snider and a Dominican man.
Dominica police mentioned the extreme fireplace within the automotive made figuring out the our bodies unimaginable, and they’re counting on ‘circumstantial proof to attach them to the lacking couple’.
The Canadian couple opened their eco-resort final yr. They had labored on it for 20 years
Dominica native Jacqueline Dupigny informed DailyMail.com the Canadian couple was beloved within the island and could be enormously missed.
She mentioned: ‘The sweetest foreigners to set foot on this island. They have been exemplary stewards of the land round them and to their employees they handled them with a lot respect.’
The entrepreneur offered his software program firm to Microsoft in 1994 for $200 million and went on to discovered the Daniel Langlois Foundation for the Art, Sciences and Technology.
In 1997, he acquired a scientific and technical Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Daniel Langlois Foundation mentioned Mr Langlois’ ‘stellar profession left a profound affect on modern cinema’.
Langlois and Marchand performed an essential position in the neighborhood, in response to Soufriere village politician Denise Charles-Pemberton, who informed a state-owned radio channel: ‘These previous couple of days have been extremely heavy for our constituency.
‘To lose two members of our neighborhood, who’ve been on the coronary heart of its growth and its sense of spirit and togetherness is one thing that we have now struggled to place into phrases.
‘Daniel and Dominique could also be recognized for his or her world-renowned eco-resort within the village however to the folks of the Soufriere constituency and to me, they have been sort, loving and actually neighborhood oriented.’
