On the first day of Randy Tshilumba’s second murder trial, Crown prosecutors said they would provide the jury with access to the accused’s “most intimate thoughts.”

In April 2016, 20-year-old Clémence Beaulieu-Patry was killed in the Maxi grocery store where she worked, located in Montreal’s Saint-Michel neighbourhood.

Tshilumba pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, but the prosecution and the defence both agreed that he stabbed Beaulieu-Patry.

In its opening statement, the Crown said Tshilumba looked at news stories about murder in the days following the killing.

The Crown also said it would show records of the accused’s cellphone in which one of the notes he took allegedly said: “Invent a solid story for the police.”

Eyewitnesses, including Maxi customers and employees, are expected to testify during the trial.

Myriam Ben Saïd was the first to testify. The 27-year-old said she and Beaulieu-Patry had been best friends for eight years and she had met the accused in high school, but didn’t know him well. Ben Saïd said she and the victim knew Tshilumba’s friends and would sometimes talk with them.

In his first trial in 2017, Tshilumba was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole before 25 years. But in November 2022, a second trial was ordered by the Quebec Court of Appeal.