Despite their young age, they risk spending many years in prison.
Lassana B. is 23 years old.
His friend, Yassir E., 22 years old.
If both arrived under escort at the Compiègne court this Tuesday, it is because they are already serving a sentence handed down by the Oise Assize Court last year for a murder committed in April 2020 in Compiègne.
Both were found guilty of beating a 22-year-old young man and throwing him into the Oise where he drowned.
The first appealed his 18-year sentence.
The other accepted the verdict and will be released in 15 years.
Tried this Tuesday for violence and theft that occurred three months before these events, they were sentenced to 10 months in prison for Yassir and 15 months for Lassana.
Enough to extend their stay behind bars a little longer.
“I was in a daze”
At the time of this episode, they were barely adults.
On January 11, 2020, the two Compiégnois left their Clos des Roses neighborhood and went, a little before one in the morning, to the Première Classe hotel in Jaux to celebrate Lassana B.'s birthday with several friends.
In a room, they consume vodka and inhale nitrous oxide, a euphoric gas with devastating consequences on health.
“It was fashionable, it had just happened.
Everyone was taking it.
I spent a good part of the evening making balloons to suck up the gas, murmurs Lassana.
I was a bit in a daze but there were quite a few people, people coming in, people going out.
We often went to the hotel to do what we couldn't do at home.
»
Jaux, 2016. The two defendants were sentenced to 15 and 10 months for beating four customers at the Première Classe hotel in 2020. LP/Nicolas Goinard
At 4:23 a.m., three men and a woman arrived at the same establishment.
Back from the nightclub, they prefer not to hit the road again.
While they are at the terminal to reserve a room, the group of Lassana B. and Yassir E. offers them a room for 20 euros, half the price, which they accept.
But a few minutes later, there was a pounding on their door, more and more violently.
The young woman will eventually open.
Three individuals burst in.
The woman is slapped while two of the occupants are beaten.
“One of them has a fractured left eye socket and broken teeth.
He had 15 days of ITT (temporary incapacity for work), it's enormous, relates the president, Nadine Duboscq.
The other had a broken nose.
When the police found him at 5:20 a.m., he was in a terrible state, still lying on the floor in the bedroom.
» The customer manages to escape and alerts the concierge who dials 17. During this time, a bank card, a telephone and car keys are stolen.
The group of two defendants then left the scene, running to the vehicle before fleeing.
“Prison allowed me to refocus”
“I was a bad person at the time,” confesses Yassir E. “I was immature, I drank, I did drugs, I hung out with the wrong people, I had dropped out of school.
We don't realize it, but we only live for ourselves, we don't think about others.
Prison allowed me to refocus.
I got rid of my addictions.
I started training again.
»
In his defense.
Lassana B. says he left on foot and did not participate in the acts of which he is accused.
During his hearing, Yassir E admitted to having given “the girl a slap” and to having followed the group in the car.
“He is the only one who recognizes the facts and who corroborates the victims' statements,” underlines Guillaume Théobald, deputy prosecutor.
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Me Hervé Denis, lawyer for Lassana B, tried to dismantle all the inconsistencies in the file.
“38 pages for a 38-month investigation.
It was botched, witnesses were not questioned, some very late, he complains.
Evidence has been destroyed, it is impossible to request a second opinion.
All that is certain is that my client was there, but there is no proof that he participated in this sinister evening.
» As for Me Mouna Taoufik, who defends Yassir E., she tried to highlight the good faith of her client.
“He was easily identifiable, he was the only North African, the others were African.
No one accused him of theft or violence apart from the slap.
For the rest, he followed.
That's all.
»
Particularly, Yassir was tried twice in two separate hearings this Monday.
Before this case, he was sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence for a drug trafficking case dating back to May 2019 to six months suspended prison sentence.