The man who was convicted earlier this year in the first-degree murder of a Quebec student in 2000 has pleaded guilty in a second cold case.
Marc-André Grenon admitted Friday to attempting to murder a woman who was found assaulted and left for dead in Quebec City in July 2000, months after police discovered the body of Guylaine Potvin about 180 kilometres north.
Prosecutor Pierre-Alexandre Bernard said outside the courtroom that Grenon pleaded guilty in the second cold case because of the “strong and convincing evidence” against him, including his DNA found at the scene of the crime.
In February, a jury convicted Grenon of sexually assaulting and killing 19-year-old Potvin after he broke into her Saguenay, Que., apartment while she was sleeping.
Police had honed in on the suspect more than 22 years after the two crimes when a project tracking Y chromosomes — which are passed down from father to son — suggested the previously unidentified DNA left by Potvin’s killer was connected to the last name Grenon.
Bernard said Grenon has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he will serve at the same time as the 25-year sentence for Potvin’s murder.
The prosecutor says Grenon’s lawyers have dropped their appeal of his first-degree murder conviction.
CBC investigative journalist Leah Hendry breaks down how new DNA technology is helping crack cold cases and why more of those cases are being solved in Ontario than in Quebec.