“I jumped on him like an animal,” Evan Jean said.

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“Injuries that testify to relentlessness.” These are the words with which Captain Benjamin Lehoux, director of the investigation, described the fate reserved for Laura Tavareskilled at the age of 22, on January 14, 2021 in Alençon, by her ex-partner Evan JeanThe 25-year-old man, prosecuted for assassinationis being tried by the Orne Assize Court until Wednesday, September 18, 2024.

Screams heard by neighbors

Laura Tavares was found dead at her home on Friday, January 15, 2021, at around 10:15 a.m., by her boss, who was worried about not having seen her return to work the day before, after her lunch break. The Caen judicial police were called immediately. In the apartment, they found a pool of blood at the foot of the sofa and traces that led to the bedroom. The victim was on her bed.

The downstairs neighbor revealed that he heard “two cries” around 1:15 p.m. Based on the video surveillance from rue Saint-Blaise, the police quickly identified a suspicious man who entered the building at 11:42 a.m. and did not come out until 2 p.m. In the footage, Laura Tavares can be seen leaving work and going home around 12:30 p.m.

The individual on the cameras is none other than her former partner, Evan Jean, with whom she had a romantic relationship between 2015 and 2020. On Saturday, January 16, the 21-year-old man showed up with his mother at the Alençon police station for confess his involvement in the murder. “I did something stupid but she didn’t suffer,” he told police. He was charged with murder on January 18.

An abortion would have provoked his anger

Still as cold since the beginning of the trial, he recounted his act. According to him, he had arranged to meet his ex that day. “I was a little early so I went home and sat down on the stairs.”

About forty minutes later, Laura Tavares arrived. “Everything was going very well. We were discussing her work, her heating problems, everything and nothing.” The accused mentions a subject that allegedly lit the fuse: Laura told him that she had suffered a abortion in October 2020. And that, according to him, he was the father. “I started getting angry and we had an argument. She asked me to leave.”

He did so. But once in the entrance hall, he changed his mind. “I saw a tool cabinet and I took a hammer,” he explained. In the other hand, he grabbed an Opinel knife, retrieved from his pocket. “What was your intention when you went back up?” Dominique Veillard, the presiding judge, asked him. “To kill her,” he answered, without hesitation. “The only thing I wanted was to hurt her because she had hurt me.”

“A great silence”

Arriving at the apartment, the young man savagely attacked his former girlfriend. “I jumped on her like an animal,” he said.

I hit her several times with a hammer. I don’t remember how many, I hit her a lot. Then, a big sharp blow with a knife. She fell onto the table.

Suddenly, he paused for several seconds. “And then?” the president asked him again. “There was a long silence. I was stuck for a few minutes, I didn’t know what to do.” He grabbed the body and laid it on the bed, covering its trunk with a duvet and its face with a sheet.

Laura Tavares’ autopsy found a 2 cm wound wide on the left side of the thorax. “The weapon punctured his lung and hit the heart ventricle,” said Dr. Frédérique Papin-Lefebvre, a forensic pathologist at the Caen University Hospital. According to her, the stab wound was “probably the cause of death.” “Particularly severe injuries” caused by the hammer – 10 plagues on the scalp – were found on the head, causing head trauma. “With injuries like that, it was necessary to intervene within minutes. She did not die instantly,” the specialist added.

“Laura was afraid of it”

Several elements contradict the version of the accused, who admits the acts but not the premeditation. Starting with the announcement of voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) which allegedly provoked her anger. Relatives claim that the child came from a man “much older than her”. He did not mention this motive for entry to investigators either. “I could not accept this abortion. I am someone who has a lot of trouble expressing myself,” he retorted.

Another disturbing point: one of the weapons of the crime. He claims to have recovered the hammer from Laura’s building lobby. But a neighbor, who has lived there since 2007, says there are “only one or two” hammers in the cabinet and does not recognize the one Evan Jean used.

His relationship with the victim also raises questions in the court. Friends report harassmentof threats and of violence Evan Jean’s attitude toward Laura Tavares, from their separation in early 2020 to the events. “He told me straight in the eye that he was going to kill her,” a friend of the couple reported. “Laura was afraid of him.” Laura revealed to close friends that she would have been sequestered by him for several hours in September 2020 because he demanded his phone code.

In Laura’s phone, investigators found several SMS addressed to Evan Jean, in which she asked him to leave her alone. “Sometimes, you hit me for nothing,” “I have to protect myself” or “I’m not afraid of anything except you,” we can read. “After our separation, it was war. I was very angry with her but we had reconciled,” he persisted. According to him, he had maintained an intimate relationship with her until the summer of 2020.

A published photo “loaded with meaning”

The last point that concerns the magistrates: Evan Jean’s behavior during the hours following the murder. After returning home, he returned to the apartment on Friday, January 15, around 5:30 a.m. and 8:50 a.m. Before leaving, he stole his victim’s phone and bank card – with which he attempted three cash withdrawals. He says he wanted to put them back in their place.

I fell in front of the mess. There was blood everywhere, I saw Laura’s feet. It took me a while before I went back into the room. I couldn’t believe what I had done. I took her hand and apologized.

On the afternoon of the murder, Evan Jean posted photos of Laura, half-naked, on social media. He also changed the cover photo of his Facebook account: it shows Thanos, a character from the Marvel universe, on a throne. “He is accompanied by the ghost of a woman who is tearing out his heart and two grim reapers. This photo is loaded with meaning,” noted the investigation director.

Until now very detached from the trial, Evan Jean suddenly wanted to “apologize” to Laura’s family. “I could never ask them to forgive me. What I’m doing is inhuman. I don’t recognize myself in this gesture. Today, I realize their suffering.”

The investigation of the case was completed at the end of this second day of trial. It will end on Wednesday, September 18, with the pleadings of the lawyers and the requisitions of the attorney general. The verdict is expected at the end of this third and final day.

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