By Carlisle Jno Baptiste
ROSEAU, Dominica, June 15, 2026-The High Court in Dominica has dismissed an “abuse of process case” filed by defense counsel for double murder accused Jonathan Lehrer and his co-accused Robert Snider Jr. The defense team had petitioned the court on allegations that the State had “abused the process” and, as a result, their client would not get a fair trial.
Ravi Rajkumar of Trinidad and St. Lucian Alberton Richelieu are the attorneys for Robert Snider Jr., and David Bruney is the lawyer for Jonathan Lehrer.
The Judge upheld the submissions of the prosecution on behalf of the State presented by the Learnered Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Sherma Dyrample, and set a trial date for June 26, 2026.
On April 15, 2026, the two United States nationals were officially arraigned, where the murder charges were read to them. They pleaded not guilty to the 2023 murder of Canadian philanthropist Daniel Langlois and his 58-year-old longtime partner, Dominique Marchand.
The prosecution alleges that between November 29 and December 2, 2023, the two Americans murdered Langlois and Marchand, whose bodies were found incinerated in a car near Gallion, in the south of the island where they owned a hotel. Langlois and Marchand had been reported missing for several days.
The murder of the Canadians came amidst a long-standing property access dispute over a public road. Lehrer owned the 53-acre Bois Cortlette Inc Estate next to Langlois’s sustainable resort, Coulibri Ridge.