Valentin Marcone “
gave his truth about the facts when he was arrested.
But is this the truth?
», asks Me Rémy Nougier, lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The family and loved ones of Luc Teissoniere and Martial Guerin, killed by firearms, are desperately awaiting the answer to this question which has haunted them for three years.
The trial of the 32-year-old Gardois, which opens this Wednesday, January 24 before the Nîmes assizes, will be the final opportunity for the seventeen civil parties to try to unravel the mysteries of this personality “
with paranoid disorders
”.
Did Valentin Marcone premeditate to kill his boss and his colleague at the Plantiers sawmill on the morning of May 11, 2021?
Or did a simple detail ignite a spark that sent this “
distrustful
” and “
sensitive
” man into horror?
At 7:33 a.m., Valentin Marcone leaves the small dark stone house where he lives with his wife and their baby to go, like every morning, to his work.
He arrives at the Plantiers sawmill at 7:42 a.m. and meets his boss, Luc Teissonniere, who is chatting with his colleague, Martial Guérin.
He walks past them without saying a word, which earns him a remark from his employer.
In a fraction of a second, chaos falls on the members of this small company lost in the heart of the Cévennes hills.
Valentin Marcone shouts at his boss to “
shut up
”, Martial Guérin retorts that he has a “
serious problem
”.
The Gardois opens his jacket, takes out a gun and shoots Luc twice, then once at Martial.
Both men died instantly, both being hit in the head.
“A big stupidity”
The scene, of incredible violence, takes place before the eyes of Vincent, another employee.
The young man, paralyzed, cannot take his eyes off the inert bodies lying at his feet.
The voice of Valentin Marcone, a seasoned shooter with a passion for weapons, extracts him from his torpor.
“
He told her: ‘Don’t worry, I have nothing against you’
,” Mr. Nougier told Le
Figaro
.
Vincent flees into the woods surrounding the sawmill and takes refuge in a neighboring house where he alerts the police.
But when they arrive at the crime scene, Valentin Marcone is no longer there.
Valentin Marcone is accused of killing his boss, Luc Teissonnière, and his colleague Martial Guerin, on May 11, 2021, in the sawmill where all three worked.
PASCAL GUYOT / AFP
After the killing, the latter returns home.
He confesses to his wife and his mother-in-law Nadine, also present at the home at the time, that he had done “
a big stupid thing
”.
Nadine tries to convince him to call the police but Valentin Marcone rejects her proposal, saying he would shoot them.
“Cold and without emotion
”, according to his mother-in-law's description, he puts on camouflage clothing and a bulletproof vest and leaves without looking back, into the woods, rifle on his shoulder.
Is he planning to commit suicide?
Is he planning another attack?
His hunt focused the efforts of more than 300 gendarmes during four days of high tension in the region.
On May 14, Valentin Marcone, surrounded by the military and “
not having the strength to end his life
” according to the investigation report, came out of the wild boar hole in which he had taken refuge near 'a course of water, and surrenders without resistance.
Feeling of persecution
From his first exchanges with investigators, the frail little brown-haired man admitted to having shot the victims with a Sig Saueur pistol “
out of anger and a feeling of paranoia
”.
Throughout the investigations, the tortured mind of this young man, described by those close to him as “
introverted
”, “
unsociable
” and “
preferring solitude
”, emerges.
A particular element seems to have precipitated his isolation and his feeling of persecution.
In 2017, this holder of a BTS in laboratory technician was hired at the town hall of Les Plantiers.
Very litigious, Valentin Marcone believes that his working conditions do not respect the legal framework and initiates proceedings against the mayor before the industrial tribunal.
“
He felt completely insecure.
That's why he started moving around with a bulletproof vest and a weapon.
He was in a situation of extreme tension.
»
Me Hélène Mordacq, lawyer for Valentin Marcone.
His defeat by the municipality increases his feeling of injustice and amplifies his paranoid disorders, according to testimonies collected by investigators.
After this lost legal battle, the young father said he feared reprisals from the mayor and a gendarme whom he suspected of plotting against him.
He would have been the target of death threats, he assures.
His omnipresent distrust led him to “
install surveillance cameras around his home and on his vehicle
”, noted the gendarmes.
“
He felt completely insecure.
That's why he started moving around with a bulletproof vest and a weapon.
He was in a situation of extreme tension
,” explains
his lawyer, Me Hélène Mordacq, to Le
Figaro .
Paranoia?
When he started working in Luc Teissoniere's sawmill in 2018, Valentin Marcone had not turned the page.
His colleagues are unable to establish a connection with this distant man, sometimes considered worrying.
For the neighboring cabinetmaker, Valentin Marcone behaved like a “
dangerous madman
”.
An attitude that distresses him to the point of preferring to come to his workplace with a knife.
On a professional level, the young man once again feels wronged: he has not been paid overtime and he is the victim of bullying.
Above all, on the day of the murders, he would have overheard a conversation between Luc Teissonniere and Martial Guérin who “
tried to push him to make mistakes in order to fire him
”, reports Me Mordacq.
This exchange would be the tipping point for Valentin Marcone.
“
His interpretative and intuitive ideas that he developed would make it possible to characterize a disorder that had impaired his discernment
,” notes the psychiatrist who assessed him during the investigation.
It was in this outburst of anger, blurred by his paranoid disorders, that Valentin Marcone decided to use the weapon that he had not left for several months, established his lawyer, thus rejecting the hypothesis of premeditation.
“Appease” the civil parties
“
He was aware of what he was doing
,” says Rémy Nougier, convinced that the accused left his home that morning with the desire to kill his victims.
“
Vincent, who was present on the day of the murders, claims that the conversation between Luc and Martial about Valentin's dismissal never existed.
He invents a pretext
,” breathes the lawyer for the civil parties who deplores that the accused “
remains stuck on the argument of paranoia.
The families of the victims cannot be satisfied with this explanation.
»
Three years after the tragedy, Valentin Marcone is still being monitored by a psychologist in the prison where he is incarcerated.
He regularly receives visits from his wife and their daughter, as well as his father.
“
This family support helps him keep going.
He realizes the horror of his act and the disproportion of his gesture
, says his lawyer.
He is waiting for this trial to explain what state of mind he was in at the time of the tragedy and to provide answers that can appease the civil parties.
» Valentin Marcone faces life imprisonment.