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The family and friends of slain beautician Norma Gilles sat in silence in court this morning as a prosecutor alleged that the Haitian beauty's ex-beau strangled her to death in a jealous rage, wrapped her body in trash bags and left it to rot in the trunk of her car.

Lesly Cheremond, the suspect, in Malden District Court, Monday, March 3, 2008.		Norma Dorce Gilles, the victim.

Lesly Cheremond, 50, was ordered held without bail this morning after he was charged with murdering Gilles, 37, sometime after she disappeared Feb. 13 from her Malden beauty shop, Scruple. Her body was discovered about two weeks later in the trunk of her Toyota, parked just blocks from the salon.

Her sister, Murlande Dorce Amglade, 62, wept this morning as she talked about her fears for Gilles'safety. He's going to kill you, Amglade, of New Jersey, recalled telling her younger sister. She said, ˜He's not going to kill me.

I'm so sad, Amglade said while sitting inside Malden District Court before Cheremond's arraignment.

A Middlesex prosecutor today claimed that Cheremond had grown increasingly jealous of Gilles'new boyfriend, and had threatened the man just days before Gilles was killed.

Authorities say the couple's stormy relationship ended about a year ago when Cheremond allegedly held a knife to Gilles' throat and threatened to kill her if she went to police. Gilles had filed a restraining order against Cheremond after that assault. His case was scheduled to go to trial just 13 days after she disappeared.

Gilles, who lived in Lynn, was last seen Feb. 13 when she left her salon, leaving a customer under a hair dryer, and said she was getting a cup of coffee. Prosecutors alleged that she ended up next door at a store Cheremond owned.

Inside the store, police later found trash bags matching the type that Gilles' body was wrapped in, as well as her car key, according to prosecutors. Cheremond tried to cover up the murder by concocting stories about Gilles' disappearance, according to prosecutors.

Gilles' brother, Jules Dorce of Mansfield, said he knew his sister felt that she was in danger. She feared for her life, Dorce said this morning.

Cheremond's defense attorney, James Budreau, claimed that the prosecution's evidence was circumstantial. A not guilty plea was entered on Cheremond's behalf. There are no forensics at this point, he said.

jfargen@bostonherald.com

© Copyright by the Boston Herald and Herald Media. Reprinted from The Boston Herald of Monady, March 3, 2008.

A 48-year-old Everett man is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a hairdresser who left her Malden shop in mid-February to get a cup of coffee and never returned, prosecutors said.

Lesly Cheremond will be arraigned Monday in Malden District Court in the death of Norma Dorce Gilles, 37, of Lynn, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said at a news conference last night. Gilles' body was found Wednesday in the trunk of her car.

Cheremond, who was arrested yesterday afternoon, was Gilles' ex-boyfriend, Leone said.

The prosecutor began the news conference by repeating Gilles' name. "I remind you of the name of the victim in this matter because of an all-too-familiar story line" of domestic violence, he said. "We never want to forget the victim in these matters."

An autopsy found that Gilles had been asphyxiated by smothering and that she had suffered "forced compression to the neck area," Leone said.

Gilles had taken out a restraining order against Cheremond after an incident of alleged domestic abuse last year, Leone said.

Witnesses told police that Cheremond and Gilles, who had been estranged for more than a year, had argued on Feb. 12. Gilles was last seen walking out of her Salem Street shop, Scruple, on Feb. 13. Cheremond owned the music and DVD shop next door to Gilles', Super Star Lesly C Music Productions.

Gilles' brother filed a missing person report on Feb. 23.

"Immediately, the police went into action," Leone said. Within several days, they had located the victim's car just a few blocks from her salon. They towed the car to the police department. When they opened up the trunk, they found her body inside.

Gilles' brother, Jules Dorce, has said that Gilles and Cheremond, who were both Haitian immigrants, had a volatile relationship and she planned to leave the area and move to Miami.

Leone said that investigators had evidence linking Cheremond to Gilles' slaying, but he declined to detail it, saying more information would be disclosed at Monday’s arraignment.

Copyright 2008 The Boston Globe| © 2008 NY Times Co.

Malden businessman, Cheremond, considered a prime suspect in the brutal death of former girlfriend, small businesswoman

By Yves A. Isidor, wehaitians.com executive editor

CAMBRIDGE, MA, Feb. 28 - A body, believed to be that of a Haitian-American small businesswoman, was discovered in the trunk of an automobile, late Wednesday afternoon, on Faulkner Street, in the nearby Boston city of Malden, Massachusetts, according to that state Middlesex District Attorney Office, which declined to reveal the name of the dead woman pending family notification, also since it is in the process of interviewing a number of people who might have witnessed or have valuable information about the crime. An information quasily echoed by "Voa Lakay," literally The Voice of the Alma Mater Nation, Haiti..

Norma Dorce Gilles, aged 37, the woman whose body is believed to have been found in the trunk of a car..

But hours before, if there were one thing that happened to be the top news story on "Voa Lakay," a Boston Haitian-American radio magazine program, broadcast on the Newton, Mass. radio station, WNTN, 1550AM, from 11:30AM to 5:15PM, Monday to Friday, it was the sudden disappearance of the Malden Haitian-American small businesswoman, who for a longtime, about three years, was the girlfriend of Lesly Cheremond, 48, the Haiti native owner of a record store, Super Star Lesly C Music Productions, in the city of the same name.

Immediately after the brother, Jules Dorce, of the missing woman called "Voa Lakay" Tuesday, pleading with members of the Boston Haitian-American community to help him locate his sister, going as far as providing listeners with her full name, Norma Dorce Gilles, 37, and descriptive information about her automobile, Mr. Cheremond called and said "The brother has no right to accuse me as being the one responsible for his sister's disappearance."

Mr. Cheremond, who thereafter had a few more unpleasant words for the missing woman's brother, further said, as he was about to terminate his call to "Voa Lakay," "Yes, she and I used to be lovers, but no more; now, we are simply friends."

Mr. Cheremond, who is reported to have been detained by Malden Police, despite a futile call by wehaitians.com to that law enforcement body, late Wednesday afternoon, in an effort to confirm so, after he was considered to be a suspect, further said  "I simply put a note on her shop's doors that read close for one week and than removed it after I didn't notice her presence there for a week or so."

Asked by the host of "Voa Lakay," Mr. Serge Valme, what authorized him to put such a note on the doors of her store since the mini commercial establishment, a beauty salon called Scruple, was not his. In search of more information, Mr. Valme reminded him that he previously said he didn't know about her whereabouts. Also in response to the latter, Mr. Cheremond said "Yes, I put the note there because she was a friend of mine," apparently with a lot of hesitation.          

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