During their depositions, very dignified, this Tuesday, the civil parties resigned themselves: they will probably never know what were the last moments of Jocelyne, 82 years old, found with stab wounds in her home, boulevard de Charonne (Paris 11th) , in May 2021.
During the three days of his trial, before the Paris Assize Court, Fabien
(his first name has been changed)
, 59, admitted to having killed his neighbor, when he wanted to rob her.
But he says he has no memory of the facts, being a victim at the time of his act of total amnesia, linked according to him to his massive consumption of cocaine and alcohol.
“The truth, we know we won’t get it.
We will have the judicial truth,” Olivier, 32, whispered on Tuesday, suppressing a sob.
Jocelyne's godson by marriage, very close to his godmother, said he was haunted by this question: Did Jocelyne see death coming?
“It is the living who face the silences,” regretted the attorney general, Olivier Bray, this Wednesday, on the last day of the hearing.
During his indictment, the magistrate demanded a sentence of thirty years' imprisonment for Fabien, accompanied by a two-thirds security period, in view of the "true criminological dangerousness" of the accused.
Because for him, as for the lawyer for the victim's relatives, Me Charlie Descoins, the premeditation of the murder is beyond doubt.
“The explosive cocktail of Covid, existential anxieties and cocaine”
On the day of the incident, Fabien "went up" to his neighbor's house with a "pair of scissors", "yellow gloves" and "scotch tape", which he was going to "use to cut up" his victim.
“He leaves with the paraphernalia to kill this lady.
He knows he is going to commit this theft.
He doesn't want to be denounced.
So he knows that he is going to delete it,” maintains the magistrate, thus opposing the thesis of the investigating judge, who only accepted aggravated murder, that is to say without premeditation.
It is therefore life imprisonment that Fabien faces, if the jurors side with the theory of assassination, murder with premeditation.
In his very detailed indictment, Olivier Bray denounced the “savagery” of the act, a “massacre”.
The autopsy noted that the old lady had her skull smashed, her larynx fractured and her thorax and abdomen stabbed with 25 blows from a bladed weapon.
“There is the explosive cocktail of Covid
(the events took place in the middle of a pandemic)
, existential anxieties and cocaine.
But the 25 stab wounds?
You have to explain the unleashing of hatred in you to behave like that,” he urged, in vain.
The magistrate nevertheless recognized a certain “honesty” in Fabien’s attitude at the hearing.
“He still said things.
He did not deny the facts with which he is accused.
He apologized.
»
“Everything is disorganized”
For the defense lawyer, Me Mathias Darmont, “nothing suggests” that Fabien went up to his neighbor’s house “with the intention of killing her”.
“I still have the impression that there was a lot of improvisation
(…)
Everything is disorganized.
What sense does it make to use scissors?
He goes so far as to injure himself.
»
There is, also, this “total irrationality in theft”.
“What is he stealing?
A credit card, for which he is not even sure he has the right code.
» Jocelyne, a former jeweler, nevertheless hides “things to steal”.
“Even on her, there are jewels.
This makes no sense,” summarizes the Parisian criminal lawyer.
There is also this glove, found at the crime scene, with the victim's blood and Fabien's genetic fingerprint.
“We are very far from premeditation,” he says.
Fabien, he still maintains, was seized by an “impulse” that he could not control, “without really understanding”, under the effect of his “absolutely terrifying consumption” of cocaine.
“He is losing his mind” and there is a “point of no return”, he “can’t go back”.
Fabien takes responsibility for this drug use today, just as he takes responsibility for the murder, his advice reminds us.
In detention, he stood out for his “irreproachable” attitude, which earned him the benefit of the respect module, a relaxed detention regime reserved for trusted detainees.
“He is in the process of withdrawal.
Once he has been treated, he will no longer be really dangerous for society,” says Mathias Darmont.
The verdict is expected this Wednesday evening.