A man in his fifties, accused of having killed a man in 2011 in the town of Leucate, will be retried from this Monday, June 24, 2024 for four days before the Pyrénées-Orientales Assize Court. In November 2019, the jurors declared him innocent but the public prosecutor’s office decided to appeal this judgment.
The stakes are high. Dizzy. Imprisoned for 13 months in connection with this case, free since July 2013 and acquitted 4 years ago, Médéric Meunier will nevertheless appear once again before an assize court, in Perpignan, from this Tuesday, June 24, to answer for the death of Eric Démier committed in the town of Leucate in 2011.
On October 28 precisely, the victim, then aged 43, owner of the Le Littoral bar, in the heart of the village, and known as a heroin dealer, was found at his home. Savagely killed. The skull was smashed, the body covered in multiple wounds and strangled.
The investigation carried out by the Montpellier gendarmes had then made it possible to identify several suspects and around fifteen people were arrested before two men were indicted for this crime. The first, whose genetic fingerprint was discovered in a bloodstain on the landing of the victim’s home, was ultimately not prosecuted. And Médéric Meunier, whose DNA profile had been revealed on Eric Démier’s bed, had been referred to justice.
In November 2019, before the Aude Assize Court, the accused, with no criminal record, continued to proclaim his innocence, explaining that the deceased was one of his friends, that he went almost every day to he sometimes did the shopping for him and that it was, according to him, natural that traces of his presence remained in the apartment. A twist of theater even marked the audience during the autopsy report of the forensic doctor affirming that the blows had been inflicted on Eric Démier by the right. While Médéric Meunier is left-handed…
“We are awaiting confirmation of this man’s innocence and the right to live which has been taken away from him since 2011”
But for the victim’s relatives, assisted by Me Marine Giorgi, her attitude had nevertheless seemed “suspicious” after the murder was announced and some witnesses spoke of a conflict between the two men over debts and violence. Not to mention these €1,550 that Médéric Meunier would have paid into his account one month after the crime, while this native of Rémois, a former mason, seemed to be in financial difficulty.
However, although the attorney general requested between 15 and 20 years of criminal imprisonment against him, the jurors took barely 2 hours and 30 minutes to acquit him. “As I said at the end of the trial, I will say all my life that I had nothing to do with Eric’s death…”, Médéric Meunier simply said when the verdict was announced. Without yet knowing that the public prosecutor’s office was going to appeal this decision.“We expect from this trial a confirmation of the innocence of Médéric Meunier”, explains his Perpignan lawyer Me Philippe Capsié, on the eve of this new hearing. “The acquittal decision seemed to have become obvious. And I also look forward to finding out how the attorney general will support this accusation and offer a new demonstration that could justify this appeal. With all that implies, 4 years later. With the withering of the evidence. With this file based on testimonies which are more rumor, concentrated in a small environment of a small village in Aude. Without direct witnesses or confessions. But above all we are waiting for this man, and for his parents, the right to live which has been taken away from him since 2011.”
The verdict is expected this Thursday, June 27, 2024.
