A 20-year-old man was brought to Dijon on Tuesday for a possible indictment for the murder of his sexagenarian stepfather with a knife and baseball bat, said the prosecutor's office. Sunday morning in Talant, in the suburbs of Dijon, a new argument broke out between the two men before the stepson grabbed a baseball bat that was in the home, hitting his father-in-law violently and repeatedly, said the public prosecutor in Dijon, Olivier Caracotch.
The young man then grabbed a kitchen knife to stab his father-in-law, also repeatedly. The autopsy revealed "five stab wounds", including one "planted in the skull", as well as several violent blows of baseball bat to the back of the head, having caused a "significant bone crash", said the prosecutor at a press conference.
Threats
For about ten years, the stepson had shared the home with his father-in-law and mother-in-law, who were married. But the 61-year-old stepfather had been "in conflict for years with the stepson whom he asked to leave the home, verbally threatening him against a background of alcohol abuse".
The young man, who has admitted the facts, is not known to the police, justice or social services. He explained his act by the "accumulation of threats and humiliations" on the part of his father-in-law but he said that it had remained verbal and not physical harassment.
However, investigations are under way to determine whether violence was exercised by the father-in-law prior to the murder, including against the mother-in-law. The latter indicated that he had remained at the family home, despite the behavior of the stepfather and unlike his sister who had fled the home, in order, he said, to "protect his mother". The suspect was being referred to an investigating judge in the middle of the day on Tuesday. The prosecutor's office requested an indictment for murder, punishable by a maximum of thirty years' imprisonment, and pre-trial detention.
