Tuesday morning, the accused again confessed, admitting having tightened with a cord the neck of his partner, then made up the crime by suicide by hanging. The Haut-Rhin Assize Court sentenced this 35-year-old drug addict who strangled in 2018 to 20 years of criminal imprisonment on Tuesday.
This sentence, pronounced after three hours of deliberation, is in accordance with the requisitions of Advocate General Benjamin Coulon against Jean-Philippe Wanner, found guilty of the murder in April 2018 of Laura Vanello, 39 years old.
"The accused's discernment was full and whole [...] and the drug dosages were not of a nature to cause total unconsciousness of his actions," said the magistrate, drawing on several expert reports.
The accused, who faces life imprisonment, first argued that his partner had hanged herself with a belt in their social housing in Ferrette, a village in the south of Alsace, while he slept.
He acknowledges the facts and then withdraws until the trial
A version refuted by the forensic scientist's findings that the fine marks on the victim's neck were incompatible with those that the thick belt could have left. Placed in police custody, he recognized the facts, before retracting for the next two years.
But Tuesday morning, he admitted to having tightened with a cord the neck of the victim, while both were under the influence of narcotics. "I was not well in my head, but I am sorry and apologize to everyone I have hurt," he said to the jury, head down.
"Did he really want to kill her?" "
His lawyer, Jonathan Muré, pleaded "a profound change in behavior" caused by the drugs, before trying to cast doubt on the homicide intention: "the accused strangled his partner, but did he really want kill her ? "
Laura Vanello was "happy to finally be able to appear publicly with a man. But it was not violent, unlike this gentleman already convicted twice for violence with a weapon in the past, "said the lawyer close to the victim, Me Axelle Mollet.
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Since the beginning of 2020, the number of suspected femicides has been at least 34, according to an AFP count. 2019 had been a dark year.
