The trial of a chilling murder opens this Wednesday, September 25 at the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Assize Court. The relatives of Rebecca, nicknamed “peanut” in the village of Buziet where this 51-year-old woman often wandered, are still in a state of incomprehension in the face of the gratuitous attack that led to the death of this woman.
On July 16, 2021, Thomas Rodriguez, 24, returning from the green space company that employs him, parked his bike against a hedge, on a small path in Buziet, off the road to Caphore. He had just passed Rebecca. He picked up a stone and threw it violently at the fifty-year-old’s face. Then he allegedly kicked the victim in the face. He recognized two of them. There were probably many more according to the medical examiner.
A “drive”
It was a neighboring farmer who raised the alarm. Perched on his tractor, he had seen “Peanut” talking to a young man on a bike, without paying any more attention. Until he made out the shape of a body at the side of the road. He alerted the emergency services and the victim’s father. Rebecca succumbed to her injuries on July 25.
Video surveillance from a company further down the road helped identify Thomas Rodriguez’s bike. The white fork had traces of blood. Arrested and taken into custody, Thomas collapsed. “What have I done? I’m ashamed.” He couldn’t explain the “sudden burst of anger” that had led him to this violent attack.
An “impulse” that contrasts with the story of the end of his day: he goes home to take a shower, finds his girlfriend, with whom he has sexual relations, before going out bowling with his friends in the evening. According to the testimonies, the police make the connection with a violent altercation that occurred six months earlier, in the evening, with a friend that he will leave “with his face deformed”.
“No rational explanation”
During the reconstruction conducted in June 2023, Thomas Rodriguez still did not provide “a rational explanation” for his actions, according to one of his lawyers, Olivier Rouvière. The young man will be assisted before the Assize Court by Antoine Tugas.
Faced with what they described as a “heinous murder”, Me Julien Marco, the lawyer for the civil parties, Rebecca’s parents and sisters, noted from this reconstruction “the total absence of any motive given and the particular violence of the acts committed against a vulnerable person”.
At the end of the investigation, the young man had mentioned a link with his mother figure, explaining that he had already seen psychologists because he had said several times that he wanted to “kill his mother”. Statements that echo a psychological assessment that had noted “significant psychopathic traits” in Thomas Rodriguez’s personality.
According to the psychiatric expert, he is criminally responsible for his actions, even though the young man is impulsive, intolerant of frustration and feels “constantly discredited”. He faces a 30-year prison sentence for murder.
