Murder suspect admits to manslaughter in Allendale killing
Francis Gabriel Solomon Jr., 38, told police he didn't know why he killed his friend, but that he was off his anti-psychotic meds at the time
Warning: This article includes a graphic description of a fatal gunshot wound that some may find disturbing.
A Kingsclear First Nation man has admitted to shooting and killing another man when they were headed out to go hunting in the fall of 2021 - and no one knows why he did it.
Francis Gabriel Solomon Jr., 38, of Porcupine Court, was arrested and charged in September with second-degree murder in the shooting death of James Paul, 40, also of Kingsclear First Nation.
In a news release issued in September, the RCMP said officers responded to a dirt road in a wooded area in Allendale, about 10 kilometres south of Nackawic, the evening of Sept. 13, 2021.
The Mounties had received a report of a shooting incident, and Paul was found dead at the scene.
Solomon was arrested the next morning.
His case was before Justice Terrence Morrison in the Court of King’s Bench on Friday for a pre-trial conference at the Burton courthouse, but instead, Solomon re-elected to be tried by judge alone (rather than before a jury, which is automatic in murder cases) and pleaded guilty to the lesser, included crime of manslaughter in Paul’s death.
In an agreed statement of facts, Solomon admitted he shot Paul in the head with a 300 Winchester Magnum rifle when they and another man, Trevor Sacobie, were driving in a truck ahead of a trip into the woods to go hunting.
Sacobie told police he and Paul had gone into the Petro-Canada store in Lake George to buy alcohol before going hunting, and he noticed that Solomon was loading his rifle in the truck.
“He asked the accused what he was doing, and the accused just laughed,” the statement reads.
“While they were driving, Mr. Sacobie noted that the accused had the gun barrel resting on the middle console of the truck.”
That’s when Solomon shot Paul in the head, it said.
Victim was ‘unrecognizable’
“Moments before the accused fired the gun, Mr. Sacobie heard him say, ‘You shouldn’t have fucking talked about me on Facebook,’” the admission document states.
The autopsy revealed the gunshot was the cause of death and had been at close range at Paul’s right cheek.
“This resulted in the face and skull being burst open and unrecognizable,” it said.
“One eyeball was recovered separate from the main body and the nostrils and face were not intact.”
Sacobie jumped out of the moving truck, which rolled into a ditch, and he fled from Solomon into the woods, eventually running to the highway to flag someone down to get help.
In the meantime, the statement said, Solomon called his father to tell him he loved him.
“The accused said he can’t go to prison and asked his father to take care of the kids if anything happened,” the document says, and later, Solomon told police he was considering suicide at that point.
After his arrest, Solomon provided police with a statement, noting he and his girlfriend had moved in recently with Paul, with whom he was friends.
“The accused stated he had no real reason to shoot Mr. Paul and that he didn’t know what came over him.” the statement says.
Solomon told police he’d run into the woods after the shooting as well because he was scared and in shock, and he’d left the rifle in a clearing, advising the officers where it was.
The offender also told police he’d been drinking hard liquor straight on Sept. 13 and had been using cocaine, and witnesses reported he was highly intoxicated.
“The accused stated that at the time of the incident, he was not taking his anti-psychotic drugs. He said he stopped taking them a while back,” the statement says.
“He said once you stop the medication it ‘messes up your brain.’ He also indicated that he sometimes heard things.”
Police never found the rifle, the Facebook message that was reportedly the catalyst for the crime or anyone who’d seen any bad blood between Solomon and Paul, the document states.
“Throughout the course of the RCMP investigation, no clear motive for this crime was determined,” the statement said.
Solomon signed that statement of admissions, as did defence lawyer Mathieu Boutet and prosecutor Rebecca Butler.
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for June 29.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story erroneously indicated the shooting occurred in 2022. We regret the error.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.