After nearly 20 hours of deliberation, the verdict was reached in the trial of the double assassination of Bastia Poretta where 12 men and three women have been on trial since May 6 before the Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court. The decision fell in an electric atmosphere, and in front of a packed but silent room, while some free defendants did not hesitate to raise their voices with journalists before the resumption.
In the box, the absent defendants were wrong, as has been the case since May 21, when seven of them challenged their lawyers and refused to return to the hearing. There were only three of them yesterday.
Clinging to his seat, President Jean-Yves Martonaro recited in a monotone voice the long list of sentences, and the answers to the 68 questions asked to motivate the verdict. They answered no to three of them. No committal warrant was issued at the bar.
The heaviest being for Christophe Guazzelli, 32 years old, presented as the conductor of the orchestra and sentenced to 30 years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a 20-year security sentence… The public prosecutor had requested civil death and life imprisonment. The jurors followed the explanations of the attorneys general who made this heir of the Sea Breeze the pillar of revenge having led to the ambush against Jean-Luc Codaccioni and Antoine Quilchini, two figures of banditry belonging to Jean-Luc’s rival clan Germani. Encrypted messages, telephony, everything connects Christophe Guazzelli who “sacrificed” his life to avenge his father Francis Guazzelli, killed on November 15, 2009 near Penta-di-Casinca.
Also accused of murder, his brother, Richard Guazzelli, 37, was sentenced to 25 years in prison (the prosecution had requested five more) with 16 years of security. He was placed by the prosecution as being the driver who picked up his brother, the shooter, in the Golf after the double assassination at the airport roundabout.
Against Lieutenant Christophe Andreani, a sentence of 25 years of criminal imprisonment was handed down (the public prosecutor had requested three more years) with a security of 13 years.
Ange-Marie Michelosi, 35, was sentenced to 25 years of criminal imprisonment. Also a member of the “clan of orphans”, the Ajaccian had allied himself with the Guazzelli to avenge his father, killed in 2008. The kingpin of the criminal association and he had been the one who had turned over the “monster”, Cathy Chatelain , 48 years old, who had given vital information to the members of his “clan” to kill Jean-Luc Codaccioni and Antoine Quilichini.
The former supervisor of Borgo, black hair, glasses, white jacket and closed face, had a smile as she entered the glass box for her eldest daughter in the room, the only one of her five children not to have seen her in prison. Cathy Chatelain took the blame when a sentence of 23 years of criminal imprisonment was handed down against her (25 years had been requested by the public prosecutor). To this sentence is added an obligation of socio-judicial monitoring.
Other henchmen of the Guazzelli clan were targeted by heavy sentences, Jaouad Sebbouba, 32 years old, accomplice, was sentenced to 20 years and Abdel-Hafid Bekouche, 36 years old, co-author of the crime to 25 years with a security measure of 15 years. The attorneys general had respectively requested sentences of 25 for the first and 25 to 28 years of imprisonment for the second.
In the second criminal circle, Jimmy Bailleul, 38, received 9 years of imprisonment, one year more than the requisitions, but the justice ordered a concurrent sentence of 4 years.
Present throughout the hearing behind the glass of the accused’s box, sometimes serene, sometimes impetuous, Jacques Mariani, The 58-year-old heir to La Brise de mer, who has been in the shadows for 37 years, did not play a leading role in this affair, but was accused of criminal association. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the encrypted messages sent to the hard core, the Guazzelli brothers. Or a quantum in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution. One of his lawyers, Me Hedi Daklaoui, considered that his client was paying for his CV and announced his intention to appeal.
Facing him in the room, his former accomplice, Jose Menconi, 58, who appeared free, is also a figure in the underworld. He was acquitted while the prosecution had requested 6 years of imprisonment against the former robber who had also sent messages but was not on the scene. At the bar, he defended himself alone, without a black robe or a law degree: having challenged his lawyers, François Marchioni pleaded for his cause. The jury was sensitive to the sincerity of his explanations and acquitted him. The prosecution had requested that a heavy sentence of 15 years be handed down against this old man who had robbed the Golf car used by the killers. He ultimately pleaded his case better than a lawyer would have done.
Christophe Guazzelli’s former partner, Chloé Castellana, 35, and Gaelle Sker, 37, partner of Richard Guazzelli, were sentenced to the same sentence: 5 years in prison, three of which were suspended, all with a convertible sentence.
Finally, The husband of the Borgo supervisor, Dominique Sénéchal, 47, was sentenced to 3 years in prison, one of which was suspended. He had already served 21 months in pre-trial detention.
As for Riad Belgacem, accused on the run, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, in accordance with the prosecution’s requests.
The appeal deadline is ten days. The hearing ended calmly, a prelude to another storm in appeal for the second round of the Bastia-Poretta double murder trial
