The trial of a double parricide committed in the Basque Country in 2016 was postponed on Tuesday January 25 as soon as it opened before the Landes Assize Court of Appeal, due to doubts about the mental health of the main accused.
Read alsoDouble parricide in the Basque Country: the trial opens for the fourth time, four years after the facts
Kevin Rouxel, accused of having killed his parents and tried to kill his brother to capture the family fortune with the complicity of his Kazakh wife, claimed as soon as the identities were presented to be in fact his twin brother and to be called Michaël.
Kevin "
committed suicide in custody in 2019
", he said, refusing to appear and asking for further DNA testing.
For his lawyers, the invention of this twin brother is the result of an unstable psychological state explained in particular by his conditions of detention in Gradignan, near Bordeaux, where "
he has been placed in solitary confinement since August
".
Therefore it is also impossible to judge his ex-wife Sofiya Bodnarchuk, suspected of complicity, "
without his main accuser
", estimated the council of the young Kazakh, Me Édouard Martial.
“It is truly the cursed trial”
These arguments were heard by the Assize Court, which granted the dismissal sine die, in order to ensure calm debates and time to carry out new expertise, in particular psychiatric on the main accused.
The Advocate General regretted a “
taking hostage
” of the court by Kevin Rouxel, while the family of the victims is “
dismayed
” by this new postponement, reacted Me Astabie, one of the lawyers for the civil parties.
“
It is truly the accursed trial, the hearings follow one another and the dismissals pile up
”, he added.
Read alsoBetween marriage refused and accusation of attempted murder, the Guerlain family continues to tear each other apart
The first instance had indeed known three: After a first trial, in December 2018, peppered with incidents (a discomfort of Sofiya Bodnarchuk in the middle of interrogation and a suicide attempt by Kévin Rouxel), the second, in May 2019, had also had to be dismissed, in the absence of the main defendant Kévin Rouxel, then hospitalized.
The third, in March 2020, was interrupted by the outbreak of the health crisis.
It was not until the fourth attempt, in November 2020, to reach a verdict: 30 years in prison for Kévin Rouxel and 20 years for his former wife.
"Pactole" of more than one million euros
The facts date back to February 20, 2016, in La Bastide-Clairence, a Basque village. The Rouxel family - Kévin and his then 24-year-old wife, their two-year-old child, brother Yann and the parents - gathered for a birthday meal. With the complicity of Sofiya, Kevin is accused of having murdered his parents with a revolver and attempted to kill his older brother, who has Asperger's syndrome.
Kevin Rouxel, who admitted the facts, had explained that he wanted to recover a "
bonanza
" estimated at 1.5 million euros, "
or even 2 million if we were doing well
".
A sum that his parents intended to bequeath to his older brother.
With his wife, whom he met on the internet, he had bought equipment – methylated spirits, hydrochloric acid – to burn down the house, taking away the valuables.
A "
checklist
" written in his hand had been found.
If he had first assured to have acted alone, Kévin Rouxel had ended up accusing Sofiya of complicity, who has always denied.
