On the second day of the trial for having killed her companion by stabbing him 24 times in September 2021 in Boulou, Laetitia L., 62, again delivered new versions of the facts this Thursday, May 23, 2024. Sailing on sight in the face of questions from the Pyrénées-Orientales assize court. Without any defense strategy.
She is like that Laetitia L. With a logic that is beyond us. On a nerve, she warned the Pyrénées-Orientales Assize Court that she would not be there this Thursday. However, here she reappears with hair and makeup in the box for her second day of trial. The 62-year-old accused politely apologizes for her behavior the day before. Then immediately look for familiar faces in the room to give them simpering smiles. To change again each of the new stories of this bloody evening of September 7, 2021. The day when, in their house in Boulou, she killed Tayeb, 47 years old, her companion of around fifteen years.
Fifteen years and already a long time since they should have left each other. The relationship, which had become untenable, turned into conjugopathy, between tensions, insults and reciprocal altercations, further inflamed by the excess of beer. But that evening, “there wasn’t even an argument” maintains Laetitia. “He broke my cell phone. He slapped me. There were no words, always this black look.” She climbs to the first floor. Tayeb follows her. When in the bathroom, she sees “THE” knife. A thin 33 centimeter blade for cutting ham. “He wasn’t handsome, I didn’t like him. But I always kept him in view because I often cut my veins. That’s what he was used for.” the sixty-year-old pours out with detachment. Tayeb, she said, would have grabbed the knife. “Because he saw that I was looking at him and to prevent me from taking him. To protect himself or to protect myself” she explains first, before saying a few hours later: “It was to keep me from moving. To scare me. And I said to myself: ‘that’s it, it’s over for me’.” From there, Laetitia would have tried to go back down to the living room. Her companion would have stood in front of her, at the top of the stairs. “Everything happened at crazy speed. I pushed him to be able to pass. I thought he was going to be able to catch himself. And of course he fell.”
The man lies unconscious a few meters below, his head against a large jar. “I’ll tell you the truth, I still had the option to leave,” admits Laetitia L. “But in my head, it said: ‘he’s going to grab your leg’. I went down, I wanted to get the knife and I started to strike. When I saw the blood coming out of his body, I realized I was killing it. Afterwards, I had a blackout.
“24 shots, you have to be a monster to do that. And I’m not a monster”
Amnesia lasting almost a minute, during which, in a state of rage, she plunged the blade 24 times into her partner’s body, piercing his heart, lung or liver 17 times. “I thought they were going to save him. It was a big panic. I dropped the knife and went to my neighbor’s house.” She opens the door and immediately understands that something serious has just happened. “I saw that Laetitia was shaking and crying. She had blood on both hands”remembers the neighbor. “She told me: ‘It’s Tayeb. I did something stupid’. She took my hand and repeated ‘Come and see’ and she took me to her house. When I arrived, he There was lots of blood. I called Tayeb by his first name several times but he didn’t answer me. Then I saw the knife. I took my phone and said. to Laetitia that she had to inform the police. She replied: ‘no problem’ So I called the police. She knew what awaited her, that she would go to prison, but she stayed there. anyway…”
“I don’t know how I did that.”repeats Laetitia L. in front of the criminal court. “I did it several times in the cell. But 24 blows is not possible, you have to be a monster to do that. And I’m not a monster. But don’t worry, I judge myself. And I’ll never be able to lay next to someone again, I swear.”
