Four years in prison, including two years suspended on probation, cancellation of driving license with ban on issuing another for three years and confiscation of the vehicle. “It is a heavy sentence but it is adapted to the seriousness of the facts and it is the price of the risk that you took,” explains President Hélène Bougarnou to the condemned man. This is Quentin Alexandre, 27, who was therefore sentenced for having, on the evening of October 31 in Épinal, fatally struck Majda Saoutarrih, 29, while she was crossing rue Saint-Michel on foot. An accident near the BMI of the Cite des Images which was shocking. At the time of the incident, the victim was struck at a pedestrian crossing and dragged for 38 m by the driver and was quickly pronounced dead by the powerless emergency services.
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In the room, part of the victim's family is there. Notably his father who came specially from Casablanca, the whole family living in Morocco. Dignified, the latter tells his daughter: “She wanted to come to France after her studies, I didn't know Épinal but I saw the tears of her colleagues at the town hall, I felt their emotion. » “She had fallen in love with the city, had met her partner there whom she wanted to introduce to her family soon when she was going to return for her birthday to Casablanca”, adds Me Lou Schiltz, lawyer for the civil party. A family today very bereaved, especially the little sister “who has had dark thoughts” since the death of her eldest.
“I destroyed an entire family”
Words followed carefully by the condemned man, who must be imprisoned for two years since a committal warrant has been issued. He himself is also the young father of an 8-month-old daughter. He always admitted the facts, explaining that he only realized that there was a pedestrian at the moment of impact. “I destroyed an entire family, I think about it every day, every night. » Then addressing the family: “I offer them my most sincere and deep apologies, I don't know what it's worth, but I want to do it. »
“On a legal level the facts are established, the only interest of this hearing is that you bring a beginning of understanding to the family”, explains the president. It must be said that at the time of the events the driver had a blood alcohol level of 1.04g/L, was positive for narcotics since he had consumed a joint the day before and above all was driving above the limit of 30 km/h, at night, in the mist. According to investigators' calculations, he was traveling at around 60 km/h at the time of impact. “And this is the low range,” specifies the representative of the public prosecutor’s office Antoine Perrin.
His requisitions amounted to five years in prison, including three years in prison. The public prosecutor also took into account the fact that the defendant, a daily cannabis user “never initiated medical follow-up” to consider that he “no longer had his place in society”. Requisitions which dismay the defense. “The Penal Code provides for reintegration into society, not elimination,” says Me Vivian Adam.
He also recalls a fact: “The 30 km/h limit is not respected on rue Saint-Michel” without claiming that this exonerates his client. “He assumes his responsibility, the sentence must protect the interests of society but also allow him to reintegrate. » In view of the sentence handed down, the lawyer will appeal. “Not on the guilt nor on the civil designation (postponed to May 16) because my client does not want to have the victim's family moved a second time, but on the quantum of the sentence.”
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