He has been in detention for more than seven months after being indicted for the murder of his wife Magali Blandin.
Jérôme Gaillard was heard for the first time Thursday, September 9,
several corroborating sources
told
Le Figaro
, confirming information from the
Parisian
.
The mother of the defendant will be heard this afternoon by the examining magistrate, we were told.
Read also Murder of Magali Blandin: her stepmother and her neighbor remain in prison
Magali Blandin's body was found more than a month after her disappearance in Montfort-sur-Meu, in Ille-et-Vilaine, after her husband confessed to having killed her with a baseball bat and buried her in a wood near Rennes.
Jérôme Gaillard was subsequently indicted for "attempted murder by spouse" for a project dating from November 2020: it was a "
criminal conspiracy
" to kill Magali Blandin, his wife and the mother of his four children.
This project was fomented by Jérôme Gaillard and members of the Georgian community, to whom the husband had paid a sum of 20,000 euros to execute his wife.
Having finally acted alone, Jérôme Gaillard was also indicted at the end of March 2021 for "murder by spouse", before being placed in pre-trial detention.
His parents, accused of "complicity in murder by spouse", had also been indicted and placed in pre-trial detention.
"He only asks for one thing, that his parents be exonerated"
"
Since he was imprisoned, he has been part of a process of transparency and has confirmed the content of his statements of custody
", explains to
Figaro
Me Jean-Guillaume Le Mintier, lawyer for Jérôme Gaillard, adding that his client told the examining magistrate that he had not succeeded in “
mourning the separation
” during the act. "
He found himself in a psychological impasse
," continues the criminal, indicating that his client spoke of "
psychological fog
" throughout the period preceding the murder of his wife. "
He was a shadow of himself but today he sees it more clearly, thanks to a long work of introspection. Even if he is still struggling to understand how he was able to commit such a gesture,
”blows the defense.
Asked about the state of mind of his client concerning his four children, currently placed in foster care, as well as his parents, who are in pre-trial detention for complicity, Me Le Mintier underlined that Jérôme Gaillard felt "
responsible
”for the fate of his children and the prison situation of his parents.
"
He asks only one thing: that his parents be exonerated
", affirms the lawyer, insisting on the fact that Jérôme Gaillard has always proclaimed the innocence of his parents who, according to his statements, were not aware of his act.
Read also Magali Blandin case: the body found, the husband indicted for "murder by spouse"
It is precisely this question which is at the heart of the investigation today. If the investigations were able to determine that Jean Gaillard, 75, did indeed help provide an alibi for his son on the day of the murder, many gray areas persist despite everything. Investigators are trying to determine whether the septuagenarian was informed of the need to provide an alibi to his son before or after the murder of Magali Blandin. If Jean Gaillard has indeed taken the decision to provide an alibi to his son after the murder, the legal qualifications may no longer be the same: it may no longer be a question of "complicity in murder" but of "concealment of evidence" . Other points question: the parents of the accused also confided to their son, a few weeks before the tragedy, the sum of 50,000 euros.But did they know what he needed the money for? The respondent for his part keeps repeating that he has "
psychologically manipulated
"his parents, in particular"
by blackmailing them emotionally into suicide
".
Monique Gaillard's lawyer, Me Gwendoline Tenier, asked last June for the release of her 72-year-old client, which she had been refused.
According to our information, she should today again appeal the pre-trial detention of Monique Gaillard.
In addition, a confrontation between Jérôme Gaillard and his parents should take place next October,
a source close to the matter
told
Le Figaro
.
Contacted, the lawyer for the family of Magali Blandin, Me William Pineau, did not wish to speak about these interrogations.