Quebec inmate who spent 51 months on lam pleads guilty to escaping federal prison
MONTREAL — A Quebec man who spent 51 months on the lam from a federal prison before he was arrested last year has pleaded guilty to escaping custody.
Denis Bégin was sentenced to 18 months in prison to be served concurrently with a life sentence that he is already serving for second-degree murder.
Court documents in an unrelated case from Correctional Service Canada identify Bégin as a suspect in the Old Montreal fire last year that killed seven people, but police have never publicly identified him as a suspect and no charges have been laid in that case.
Bégin, 63, pleaded guilty today in a brief appearance by video conference before Quebec court Judge Marc-André Dagenais in Laval, Que., north of Montreal.