Despite his newly-discovered Indigenous heritage, the hitman who killed former pro boxer Eddie Melo and his friend has had his day parole revoked — again.
The beefy Charles Gagne, 52, took the decision on the chin.
“I just want you to know that I respect the decision you’re making,” he told the parole board before learning that he hadn’t convinced them to give him another chance. “If you want to keep me here, I will stay here.”
Well, the contract killer doesn’t have much a choice.
Gagne is serving a life sentence at Joyceville Penitentiary with no eligibility for parole for 12 years for the April 6, 2001 mob hit of the former Canadian middleweight champion- turned-enforcer for the Cotroni crime family and his childhood friend Joao “ Johnny ” Pavao, 42, as they chatted outside Amici Sport Cafe in Mississauga’s busy Cliffway Plaza.
The long-time criminal, who was actually on day parole at the time for an armed robbery, jumped at the $75,000 Melo contract in the hopes of moving up the underworld ladder. Pavao was simply in the way.
Gagne shot both men at close range — three bullets into Pavao’s head and while Melo was seated in his Jeep Cherokee, one shot into his left eye and the second into his temple.
“ Mr. Melo tried to press the gas. I shot him twice in the head, ” the hired killer later told the judge.
Gagne then returned to his Ottawa halfway house in time for curfew.
While still on parole — and before his arrest after another inmate ratted him out — Gagne shot another man in the stomach while trying to collect on a drug debt.
Originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Gagne was offered a “sweetheart deal” by the Crown in 2003 and pleaded to second-degree murder in return for his testimony against his co-accused, who was ultimately acquitted.
Despite the tireless efforts of Melo’s daughter, Jessica , Gagne was granted day parole to Ottawa in 2023.
It was suspended just a year later over concerns he was violating numerous conditions, such as leaving his geographic boundaries, deleting texts, consorting with sex workers and failing to disclose the thousands of borrowed dollars he’d spend on crypto investments.
Following a formal hearing in January, his day parole was officially revoked.
“ You have shown yourself to be an effective and cunning manipulator of the system,” the panel concluded. “You yourself admitted in past hearings to ‘playing the game’ and parroting back program language. “
Then in March, Gagne was granted an appeal — in part because he’d discovered his Indigenous roots.
At his hearing, his parole officer maintained his risk is “not manageable” in the community and in the interest of public safety, the parole board should uphold the revocation decision.
GAGNE SAYS HE’S LEARNED HIS LESSON
Gagne admitted he’d lied and broken the rules but insisted he’d learned his lesson.
“I’m an idiot; I didn’t think,” he said.
“I fell off the horse; I made bad choices, right?” Gagne continued. “I was emotionally overwhelmed. Now I’m good. My head’s back on. I’m determined not to come back here. Like I said, I don’t belong here anymore.”
He told the board that he was visiting his ill mother when he found her status card and learned of his heritage for the first time. But he admitted he hadn’t sought out any Indigenous services or the help of an elder since his return to prison.
“His supposed connection appeared only when it became convenient,” argued Melo’s daughter in her eloquent victim impact statement. “It is yet another ploy, a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, if you will. ”
The B.C. mother of three was relieved the parole board saw through his “smoke and mirrors” but knows it’s a temporary reprieve and she’ll soon have to cross the country again to appear at yet another hearing.
“I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until he comes up with another appeal or wants to try to come up with another angle,” she sighed, “because he is definitely hell-bent on being released.”
