Correction: Jan. 16 11 a.m.
Sudbury.com incorrectly reported the charges facing Monica Shawanda in relation to a 2025 murder. We sincerely apologize for the error.
The Cropwn attorney on the case, Alayna Jay, confirmed the new information: Shawanda will be prosecuted with Mr. Joseph Alba on one Information/Indictment, but she is not charged with second degree murder and I am not aware of any intention to charge her with second degree murder," wrote Jay in an email. "She remains charged with Accessory After the Fact to Murder and Indignity to a Dead Body. She was granted bail and remains on bail. Mr. Alba remains in custody."
She noted that the others involved, Jay Fournier, Tori Toulouse, and Hailey Burnham are expected to be prosecuted together on a separate Information/Indictment. The pre-trial hearings are Crown Pre-Trials and Judicial Pre-Trials. No pre-trial motions have been scheduled yet.
Original Story:
Once charged with accessory after the fact to a 2025 Sudbury murder, Monica Shawanda will now face second-degree murder charges alongside her co-accused, Joseph Alba.
Both are charged in connection with the murder last year of a 21-year-old man who was found dead in the front seat of a truck parked in a garage at a residence on Lansdowne Street.
At the time of her arrest, April 7, 2025, Greater Sudbury police reported that they believed Shawanda, 23, was the driver at the time of the incident and “she then hid the vehicle in the garage on Lansdowne Street, where it and the deceased were later located.”
However, at her appearance in a Sudbury court on Jan. 7, a representative for Shawanda’s attorney told the judge that after a pre-trial hearing — a hearing set to allow both counsel to speak out of court in an attempt to come to a plea/resolution—the decision was made to also charge Shawanda with second-degree murder. She will now face trial with her co-accused, Alba, who is due in court next on Jan. 15.
Alba was arrested on May 23, when Detectives from GSPS (with the assistance of the Canadian Border Services Agency) arrested 27-year-old Alba, originally from Southern Ontario, at Pearson Airport in Toronto.
It is unclear if Shawanda is in custody after a change to the charges. She was not in the courtroom Jan. 7 and was granted bail in October 2025.
There are another three people facing accessory charges, with Greater Sudbury Police alleging they “knowingly assisted in hiding the truck containing the body of the deceased in the garage on Lansdowne Street”. This trio includes: Jay Fournier, 23; Tori Toulouse, 22; and Hailey Burnham, 25. All three are set to begin pre-trial hearings soon, which are not open to the public.
It was on April 6, 2025 that GSPS reported officers were dispatched to an address on Lansdowne Street for a suspicious vehicle. “Information provided was that a Black 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 was found in a garage and there appeared to be an unresponsive man inside,” said police in a news release.
Greater Sudbury Fire Services, Greater Sudbury Paramedic Services and Greater Sudbury Police attended the scene and found a 21-year-old man with gunshot wounds dead in the front seat. The identity of the victim hasn’t been made public.
But police had no idea what happened, or what area of the city the crime had taken place.
Then, around 3:30 p.m. on April 7, detectives from the Major Crime Section of the Criminal Investigation Division located and arrested 23-year-old Shawanda, and later, the three alleged to have been accessories. Police said the three, along with Shawanda, were known to frequent the address on Lansdowne Street, and “It is believed that this was a targeted attack.”
Alba was arrested more than a month later. Shawanda is next in court Jan. 28, and Alba is next in court on Jan. 16.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com, covering vulnerable and marginalized populations, as well as housing issues and the justice system.