The verdict of the Assize Court of Seine-et-Marne, in Melun, fell in the evening: Houda A. was sentenced to twelve years in prison for administration of harmful substances, theft, fraud and breach of trust. The issue of criminal or tort poisoning was at the heart of the trial.
This 40 year old Meldoise appeared for having drugged four people with an anxiolytic, in 2015 and 2016, in Meaux and in Paris, to steal money from them: a friend, her ex-brother-in-law, the night watchman of a Parisian hotel and his own mother. Facts overwhelmingly disputed by the accused.
She had stolen several thousand euros
The Advocate General, Eric de Valroger, himself had asked for the reclassification of the most serious offense, namely criminal poisoning of Jacques, the only victim for whom Houda A. was facing thirty years in prison. “The homicidal intent does not only result from knowledge of the deadly nature of the product administered. It must be shown that the accused wanted to kill. And I'm not sure she wanted to kill. "
And to underline two aggravating circumstances in the poisoning of Jacques: “First, there was premeditation. Then she went after someone who was already a victim, since he had filed a complaint against her. She had stolen 24,000 euros from his accounts ”.
One month after this complaint, Houda A. had indeed dissolved Xanax in Jacques' chicory bowl. The day after the absorption, he had had an accident on the A4 motorway. He had been transported to the hospital before being plunged into a coma.
"He would have absorbed between 8 and 14 tablets. Paradoxically, the accident saved his life because he was taken care of by the emergency services, ”analyzed Eric de Valroger, who required eight years of imprisonment.
Victims who had reached out to him
Me François La Burthe, Jacques's lawyer, had no doubt about the homicidal intention: “The accused knew that Jacques had filed a complaint against her for the theft. She came to him to eliminate the problem. ”
And the lawyer recalled that if poisoning is one of the most severely punished crimes, it is because it is committed "with a small smile": "We are there because a good doctor has detected the poisoning and a good policeman blew up the case. All the victims are people who have reached out to the accused: her parents, who love her, her ex-brother-in-law, who pays her two nights in a hotel, and Jacques, who shelters her. ”
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For his part, Me Damien Sirot, the lawyer of the ex-brother-in-law, presented to the court a goblet containing water: "I present to you the murder weapon, an everyday object". He returned to the scene of which his client was the victim, who had left Houda A.'s luggage in his hotel room, before finding himself unconscious, partly undressed: "He drank the Xanax mixed with alcohol. He lost consciousness, she put bottles everywhere and put on her little clothes. Everything was ready to test the jealousy of his ex ”.
An accused with unmanageable behavior
The task was very difficult for defense lawyer, Me Natacha Haleblian, who had to deal with an accused with unmanageable behavior. “Who was seduced by this woman, who is said to be manipulative and who can't even control herself in the box? "
According to her, Houda A. never drugged the night porter or his ex-brother-in-law: no blood test demonstrates the absorption of Xanax. "She stole the checkout from the hotel in Paris, that's all." She pleaded the accident concerning the mother of the accused, hospitalized after drinking a coffee mixed with Xanax: "I think that the coffee was for Houda".
The lawyer returned to the deadly nature - or not - of an overdose of Xanax: “The different experts do not have the same analysis. How could Houda know more? "
According to her, if the accused visited Jacques when they had not seen each other for a month, it was precisely to recover her Xanax left in the apartment, "this product that she likes because he calms him, puts him to sleep, helps him ":" If she had wanted to kill him, she would not have left her things at his place after having drugged him ".