The father of a family accused of the double murder of his wife and his 19-month-old daughter, in a family suicide plan that was ultimately aborted, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday March 9 at the Assises de l'Hérault.
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A five-year treatment order was also issued against the accused, who remained stoic when the verdict was announced in Montpellier.
The jurors were less severe than the Advocate General who had requested 25 years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a ten-year care injunction, by describing this double murder as "
a crazy, unreasonable act
".
The magistrate had also asked the jurors to decide on a possible withdrawal of parental authority from the father over his two eldest sons, now aged 15 and 10.
But the jury, which retained "
the alteration of discernment (of the accused) at the time of the facts
", did not rule on this last question.
"
How did this perfectly integrated entrepreneur, (...) how did this husband who helps his wife, how did this father of three children come to take a gun and shoot three bullets in his wife's head and four in that of his daughter
”, wondered the Advocate General Isabelle Delande, evoking “
the shock, the amazement, the amazement and the dread
” aroused by this affair.
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Judged since Monday in Montpellier, Charles-Olivier Adde, 42, was accused of having killed his wife Samantha and their 19-month-old baby Ombeline, in July 2019, as part of a family suicide project which would have been initiated by his wife herself.
It was planned that he would then kill his two sons, then commit suicide, but he had finally given up.
During these three days of trial, the questions at the bar mainly focused on the medical context that led to the decision to place the baby, a victim of malnutrition, and on the "
ideological
" personality of the accused's wife and her influence. on the latter.
“Can we love too much?”
Decided by the mother, the choice to isolate the family in a village on the Larzac plateau was added to "
a fusional relationship between Madame Adde and her children
": it was "
a love that was too great, too disproportionate
", to the point that the parents “
end up loving them badly
”, insisted Isabelle Delande.
“
But can one love too much?
“, had questioned the defense lawyer, Flavie Baumelou.
“
The double assassination is indisputable, but it is first of all a suicidal pact
”, had pleaded for his part Jean-Marc Darrigade, another defense lawyer.
“
And in this extraordinary case, the premeditation for the two crimes was done by two
,” he wanted to recall.
“
It is the premeditation of a woman and a man who want to escape their suffering.
For them, whose absolute love has gone completely astray, this situation was unbearable, in the first sense of the term
,” added Jean-Marc Darrigade.
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"
From this love sprang a monstrous idea
", had concluded earlier Me Chantal Corbier, on behalf of the two sons, civil parties, after having kept his promise made to the eldest by reporting his testimony.
“
I miss my father.
I remember McDo after karate, movies under the blanket, and when he made us laugh in the car.
Today, everything is weird.
We were all good together
, ”explained the teenager, in a message read by the lawyer.
In the last words he was allowed to utter, the accused claimed to have "
evolved since the facts
": "
I told my two boys that I made them the promise to stay alive, even if part myself left that evening with my wife and daughter
.
