The sentence could be heavy.
Thirty years in prison, including 20 years of security, were requested against Valentin Marcone - nicknamed the “Rambo of the Cévennes” - for a double murder committed in a sawmill in May 2021 at the Plantiers sawmill, in the heart of the Cevennes.
His boss - Luc Teissonnière - was one of the two victims.
In his indictment before the Gard assizes, the attorney general, Bertrand Baboulène, considered that premeditation was not established and that it was therefore not a question of assassinations but of murders committed concomitantly.
He also considered that Valentin Marcone’s discernment was “impaired” at the time of the events.
On May 11, 2021, Valentin Marcone arrives at work, at the Plantiers sawmill, in the heart of the Cévennes.
A simple remark and he shoots his boss, then another colleague.
This 32-year-old man is portrayed as a “lone wolf”.
Also read Trial of “Rambo des Cévennes”: “I would have liked an explanation”
On the first day of his trial, Valentin Marcone admitted to having done something he “never thought he would do”.
“I hear that Luc and Martial are discussing firing me for serious misconduct, otherwise it will cost the company too much.
Then Luc comes out and tells me that I didn't say hello and that I insulted him.
I lost my temper!
I said to Luc:
Are you kidding me?
Martial said to me:
are you crazy?
I lost my temper, I took out my gun, I shot it,” the accused said, his youthful face seeming to express no expression.
A child “without history”
Three years after the events, the families affected by this tragedy still live in Les Plantiers, a village of 250 inhabitants clinging to the slopes of Mont Aigoual.
Those close to Valentin Marcone had affirmed during the trial that they “didn’t see anything coming”, describing him as a “no-nonsense” child, a “protective” big brother and a “super dad”.
Nestled below the hamlet, the “Scierie Teissonnière” is still there.
“Provisionally closed,” indicated a sheet pinned to the gate before the trial opened.
At the top of a gravel path, the shed houses several sawing lines and chestnut boards, the specialty of the establishment founded in 1992 by Luc Teissonnière and now waiting for a buyer.
Luc, a local child, passionate about the forest and woodworking, was 54 years old.
His wife Fiona, who had temporarily taken over management of the sawmill, expected nothing from the trial.
All this “is not going to change much” since his life has already “turned upside down” three years ago: “We know that he is guilty and that he will undoubtedly appeal the sentence, that’s it,” explained -she, a few days before the hearing.
At the “Marcone” trial, whose first name she never mentions, Fiona was alongside Camille Desort, the partner of Martial Guérin, the other victim, then aged 32.
And Vincent Amalric, the other worker present that day, the key witness who survived.