The Haut-Rhin assize court sentenced Tuesday to 20 years of criminal imprisonment a 35-year-old man who had strangled his partner in 2018 with a cord and then tried to make up the crime by suicide, against a background of drug consumption.
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This sentence, pronounced after three hours of deliberation, is in accordance with the requisitions of Advocate General Benjamin Coulon against Jean-Philippe Wanner, convicted of the murder in April 2018 of his partner, Laura Vanello, 39 years old. " The accused's discernment was full and whole (...) and the drug dosages were not such as to cause total unconsciousness of his actions, " said the magistrate, drawing on several expert reports .
The accused, who faces life imprisonment, first argued that his partner had hanged herself with a belt in their social housing in Ferrette, a village in the south of Alsace, while he slept. A version refuted by the forensic scientist's findings that the fine marks on the victim's neck were incompatible with those that the thick belt could have left. Placed in police custody, he recognized the facts, before retracting for the next two years.
Polytoxicomane
But Tuesday morning, this drug addict again confessed, acknowledging having tightened with a cord the neck of the victim, then made up the crime in suicide by hanging. A drama created during an argument fueled by an excessive consumption of narcotic drugs, for him as for her. " I was not well in my head, but I am sorry and apologize to everyone I have hurt, " he said to the jury, head down.
His lawyer, Jonathan Muré, pleaded " a profound change in behavior " caused by the drugs, before trying to cast doubt on the homicide intention: " the accused strangled his partner, but did he really want kill her? "
Laura Vanello was " happy to finally be able to appear publicly with a man. But it was not violent, unlike this gentleman already convicted twice for gun violence in the past, "said the lawyer for the victim's relatives, Me Axelle Mollet. In 2019, AFP recorded at least 126 cases of women killed by their partner or ex, i.e. a woman every three days on average. Since the beginning of 2020, the number of suspected femicides has been at least 34, according to an AFP count.
