A 16-year-old girl was sentenced Saturday evening in Pointe-à-Pitre to 14 years in prison for the assassination of her mother in July 2020 in Baie-Mahault, we learned on Sunday from the Pointe-à-Pitre prosecutor's office. Pitre, confirming information from local media.
At the end of a four-day trial behind closed doors, the teenager, aged 15 at the time of the facts, was sentenced to "14 years in prison", confirmed to AFP Patrick Desjardins, prosecutor of the Republic at Pointe-à-Pitre.
Before the children's court ruling in criminal matters, the deputy prosecutor Marie-Eve Brunet had required 15 years in this "file of dizzying complexity", according to the same source.
The defense unsuccessfully pleaded the accidental act.
On July 6, 2020, the 48-year-old victim was fatally injured by a bullet in the neck in her car when she had parked in the parking lot of the Destreland shopping center in Baie-Mahault, one of the most large shopping centers in the archipelago.
Appeal to decision
The first elements collected on the spot had suggested a suicide attempt but the investigation was quickly directed towards the young girl who accompanied her mother that day. Joined by AFP, the President of the Bar Roland Ezelin, lawyer for the father of the victim, civil party, said he was "surprised" by this decision.
“The qualification could have turned into manslaughter and the penalty reduced,
” he said.
Underlining the school career of "an extremely brilliant young girl", Me Jenny Morvan, defense lawyer announced to AFP their intention to appeal.
"The decision is excessive insofar as all the elements of the file suggest that it is indeed an accident,"
she said.
From corroborating sources, the prosecution stressed that the teenager had "tried" the weapon at home before the facts and had called her mother's sister to tell her that the latter had "suicidal thoughts".
Incarcerated since the facts, the teenager remains in detention.