The end of the soap opera on the Foucher-Samson affair. A man was sentenced this Wednesday, June 5 in Orléans to life imprisonment, and his sister to 30 years of imprisonment, for the double murder of an octogenarian and his nurse in 2019.
Messaoud Megchiche, 38, and Fazia Megchiche, 45, whose trial began on May 30 before the Loiret Assize Court, were found guilty of aggravated murder, damaging the integrity of a corpse and aggravated theft.
22 and 20 years of security
The court attached Messaoud Megchiche’s sentence to a security period of 22 years, that of his sister with 20 years of security, reports theAFP.
The attorney general, Jean-Cédric Gaux, had requested life imprisonment against them, denouncing “their monstrous acts”.
The body of the nurse abandoned in a field
At the end of October 2019, Jacques Samson, an 84-year-old retiree, was beaten and suffocated at his home in Châlette-sur-Loing (Loiret). His hands were cut off after his death.
His nurse Karine Foucher, 42, who came every morning to give him care, was taken by car, stabbed to death then abandoned in a field near Montargis.
“Jacques Samson was targeted because we thought he had money, that he had hit the jackpot with the death of his wife,” detailed the general advocate, while Karine Foucher was “an improvised victim because she surprised the perpetrators” in his patient.
The two culprits accused each other
Throughout the trial, the brother and sister mutually rejected responsibility for this double homicide, one denying any participation in the crimes and the other admitting to having been present but in a secondary role. He accuses his sister, who was cleaning at the retiree’s house, of having inflicted the fatal blows before cutting the victim’s hands to remove possible traces of DNA under his nails.
A version refuted by Jean-Cédric Gaux, who recalled that the accused “cleans the car, he goes with his sister to bury Jacques Samson’s hands, he is there, at the ATM, to withdraw €800 with Karine Foucher’s card”. For the attorney general, the guilt of Fazia Megchiche, who knew “that Jacques Samson did not lock his door”is just as blatant.
In defense of Fazia Megchiche, Me Damien Vinet affirmed that the brother is the sole author of the crimes and that he would have tried to clear his name in the eyes of justice by accusing his sister. “He knows how it works: you have to give to justice if you don’t want to take the maximum”he pleaded.
A third person also convicted
A man prosecuted in this case for receiving stolen goods, because he had firearms taken from Jacques Samson during the crime, was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Another man, prosecuted for failure to denounce crimes, was acquitted, in accordance with the requisitions of the attorney general.
