First day of Lafontaine death inquest sees jury selection, testimony from roommate and first responders

Day one of an inquest into the death of Nicole Lafontaine, a 31-year-old woman who fell from a fifth story window of Regina's YWCA building, has officially wrapped.

Jury selection took up the first half of Monday morning.

The selection was unique as half of the jury was selected from a separate pool of individuals who self identified as being of Indigenous descent.

The first several witnesses were composed of emergency personnel who were first on the scene.

They shared details of what they saw after being dispatched to 1904 McIntyre Street at around 3:00 a.m. on the morning of July 22nd, 2023.

Lafontaine was reportedly still breathing when first responders got to the scene and had a substantial injury on the back of her head before being rushed to hospital.

It was noted that the window crank and screen had been removed from Lafontaine's room.

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The final witness of the day was Lafontaine’s roommate at the YWCA, who recalled her exhibiting concerning behaviour which she compared to psychosis.

The roommate alleged that she communicated concerns to staff at the YWCA, but did not see any action taken other than the standard daily room checks in the morning and evening.

On the night of Nicole's death, her roommate testified that she saw Nicole attempting to climb out of the window, as though she had saw someone outside she was trying to reach.

"She said 'No it can't be, that's not you. No, that's not you' and then she was going towards the window and sliding out the window so I tried to grab her," the roommate explained.

She went on to say that she ran for help after attempting to use the buzzer in the room, which was not working.

After finding a staff member and bringing them to the room, the roommate recalled the staff member looking out the window and saying 'She's not down there.’”

Nicole's roommate explained "I looked out the window" to which the examiner asked “And what did you see?”

The roommate responded by saying "Her."

While on the stand, Nicole's roommate stated that she never witnessed Lafontaine drinking or using drugs, and went on to say that she feels the death could have been prevented.

“I don’t believe it was intentional whatsoever. I feel she lacked the support that she should’ve got,” the roommate said.

“They should’ve took her to a hospital and put her under a watch.”

The inquest is set to resume Tuesday morning.