Testimony is expected to begin today in the jury trial of a man charged in the deaths of two young New Brunswick boys who were suffocated by a python.
Jean-Claude Savoie, who now lives near Montreal, pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing death as the case convened at the Campbellton Civic Centre for jury selection yesterday.
Four-year-old Noah Barthe and his six-year-old brother, Connor, died after a 45-kilogram African rock python fell into the room where they slept in Savoie's Campbellton apartment in August 2013.
At the time, the RCMP said the snake managed to get out of its tank overnight while the boys were sleeping.
The apartment was above the Reptile Ocean pet store, also owned by Savoie, who was a family friend and had taken the boys shopping and to a farm before the sleepover with his son.
Environment Canada said one of its wildlife officers took the snake to Reptile Ocean in 2002 after it was abandoned at the SPCA in Moncton, N.B.