Life imprisonment was requested Wednesday, October 5 at the appeal trial before the Assize Court of Mende of a 27-year-old man already convicted of the murder of a woman, killed in order to "
know the feeling of removing the life
”.
“
He's not a monster, but he killed for fun.
For Mathieu Danel, I demand life imprisonment, accompanied by a security sentence of 18 years
, ”launched the Advocate General, Vincent Blériot, on the third day of his trial before the Assize Court of Lozère.
Mathieu Danel had appealed his sentence to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years for premeditated murder pronounced on January 18 by the Assize Court of Nîmes.
His defense will plead Thursday morning and the verdict is expected during the day.
A young man hitherto uneventful
On June 21, 2018, this hitherto uneventful young man, then 23 years old, appeared at the police station in his hometown of Montélimar (Drôme) to confess to a homicide committed two days earlier in Sommières, in the Gard.
After dining with his future victim, Claire Reynier, a 39-year-old woman he had hitchhiked, he killed her with 17 very violent blows from a hunting dagger purchased three weeks earlier.
He repeated in court during the trial that he wanted to "
know the feeling of taking life
" and see if he would feel pleasure or disgust from it, he tried to explain, saying he did not finally felt nothing.
Showing some signs of nervousness, he hammered Wednesday that it was only when he saw the dagger in the door of his car that he had decided to satisfy a fantasy that he admitted to having had for several years.
For the representative of the public prosecutor, on the contrary, the premeditation of the murder is beyond doubt.
He believes that Mathieu Danel was indeed animated by a “
criminal purpose
” for weeks, that he prepared his murder “
mentally
” and “
materially
” then “went
on the hunt
”, according to Vincent Blériot.
Mathieu Danel also shed his first tears on Wednesday since the opening of the trial, the fruit according to him of
a therapy started in prison which allows him to begin to feel emotions.
"
I know that I still have time to continue this therapy.
Claire, I took 60 years
from her ,” he said.
