MONTREAL – A man on trial for the kidnapping of an upstate New York couple who smuggled into Quebec in September 2020 said today he never entered their home and that, in fact, he had never met them.
Gary Arnold took the stand for a second day and told the jury that he did not know the kidnapping victims, Sandra and James Helm, or any of their family members, and that he had never been to Magog, Quebec, where the couple was detained before being released by police.
Arnold, 54, faces seven counts, including kidnapping, forcible confinement, extortion and conspiracy, which stem from the September 27 kidnapping of the 70-year-old couple, allegedly for a drug debt incurred by their grandson , Mackenzie Helm.
The Crown alleges the pair were abducted as leverage to recover the missing drugs or $3.5 million in cash.
A Quebec provincial police tactical unit freed the couple on September 29 from a cottage in Magog, southeast of Montreal, while a second tactical unit intercepted Arnold in a farmer’s field in the south -western Quebec and seized a phone.
Arnold, who was arrested two days later on October 1, 2020, told jurors that a criminal group was threatening his family and forcing him to perform various tasks.
This report by La EssonneInfo was first published on January 20, 2023.
