Seal-Evan, 9 years old, had begged his brother to stop beating him: the 26-year-old man, tried on appeal in Besançon on Wednesday, had attacked the child, who died in 2018 in Mulhouse following several hours of violence, to
“punish”
him for not doing his homework.
Full beard, Dylan Owana Bodo seems particularly annoyed to find himself in the accused box at the first moments of this trial before the Doubs Assize Court of Appeal, chewing gum, sighing several times and calling out to those interviewed .
“I am innocent,”
he told the court, confident of himself, to justify having appealed against his conviction in first instance to a sentence of 15 years of criminal imprisonment pronounced by the Assize Court of Haut -Rhine in February 2023. Tried for
“intentional violence against a 15-year-old minor leading to death without intention of causing it”
, he admits to having committed violence against his little brother, but considers that they are not responsible for the death of this joyful and enthusiastic child who distinguished himself on the football fields.
The autopsy of the victim's body was unable to determine the precise causes of death, but experts believe that it was the result of
"several hours of violence"
.
The child was notably asphyxiated by the inhalation of his stomach contents, while he was unconscious.
Belt shots
During the investigation, the accused, who himself grew up in a climate of violence where physical correction was the norm,
"kept saying that he wanted to punish him and not kill him"
, according to an investigator.
On September 16, 2018, in the family's apartment in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), the older brother called his mother, who had gone to Paris, to tell her that Seal-Evan had not done his homework.
She tells him to
“handle it”
and
“spank”
his brother.
The belting, reserved in the family for
“big stupidities”
, rains down.
The broomstick breaks into three pieces on his body.
“I don’t want to die
,” implores the child under the blows, begging his brother to stop.
His big sister hits him too.
His other 11-year-old brother and the eldest's partner, seven months pregnant, witnessed the incident.
The correction session, partly filmed by the sister, lasts from late afternoon to midnight, before Seal-Evan loses consciousness.
Warned, the mother asks a former companion, the only paternal figure among the siblings, to come to the home.
He notices, devastated, that the child is unconscious.
He called emergency services and tried to resuscitate the boy, in vain:
“Lord, lord, bring him back to me.
Evan, stay with us
,” he repeats over and over again on the Samu recording.
Siblings left to their own devices
A
“fraternal pact”
, thought up by the sister, is then sealed to hide the violence preceding the death of the little brother.
The siblings claim he felt unwell while lying in bed.
But the police investigation, the marks of blows and the testimony of his 11-year-old brother, with whom Seal-Evan was very close and also a victim of violence, allow investigators to retrace the course of the evening.
During their trial at first instance, Dylan Owana Bodo and his 25-year-old sister were sentenced respectively to 15 years and 6 years in prison for
“intentional violence against a 15-year-old minor resulting in death without intention of causing it”
.
Only the older brother appealed the decision.
The mother of these siblings left to her own devices, absent all the time and who
“traveled a lot because she wanted to release an album”
of songs, according to her brother, was sentenced to four years in prison for
“complicity in willful violence”
.
Finally, the accused's ex-girlfriend received a three-year suspended prison sentence for
“failure to prevent a crime”
.
The verdict from the Doubs Assize Court is expected on Friday.