A 29-year-old nurse tried by the Seine-Maritime assizes for stabbing her companion to death in 2021 in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) after a sexual relationship was sentenced Friday to 21 years in prison for murder.
Lucille Candela Cointe admitted in 2021 while in police custody to having stabbed her 25-year-old companion, while she was sitting on him after sexual relations, in a sadomasochistic context.
“In view of the requisitions, this decision is reasonable but that remains a quarter of a century in detention for a young woman,” her lawyer Ghislain Fay told AFP.
The day before, Attorney General Marine Joyaut de Couesnongle had requested a sentence of 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
She had justified this quantum by declaring that we do not “kill for love, let us be wary of this term of crime of passion, the accused wanted to possess Paul Le Quellec who was escaping her, she killed and premeditated her action ".
A conversation with another woman on her computer
The accused said while in police custody that she discovered on the day of the events, in the afternoon, a conversation between another woman and Paul Le Quellec on her computer.
The Assize Court upheld premeditation and sentenced Candela Cointe to 21 years in prison, accompanied by a 10-year security sentence.
“My client does not want there to be an appeal, not for fear of an aggravation of the sanction but so as not to have to relive this distressing and painful hearing,” explained Me Fay after the verdict.
For Me Isabelle Missoty, lawyer for the civil parties, this is a “sentence adapted to the seriousness of the facts, the civil parties wish that the accused respects her commitment not to appeal so as not to relive this hearing ".
On June 17, 2021, police officers from the anti-crime brigade found the young woman covered in blood on the phone with the firefighters in her apartment in Le Havre, declaring that she had stabbed her friend.
At the entrance to the room, a naked young man was lying on his back in a pool of blood, a three-centimeter wound at the base of his neck, his body cold.
On the staircase, tea lights were placed on each of the 17 steps.
Cords were found around the bed and a dagger, a gift from the victim, bloodied on the mattress.