“It was not violence, but an execution, a killing”: at the Ariège assizes, 20 and 10 years in prison for attempted assassination and complicity

“Heaven, my husband!” » The start of the indictment of the attorney general, Pierre Aurignac, resonates in the silence of the courtroom of the Foix court. Since Tuesday, November 12, the trial of Kévin* and Gaspard* has been taking place there, respectively accused of attempted murder and aggravated violence and complicity; and now the time has come for the indictment, but also for the defense pleadings.

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In 50 minutes with a watch in hand, the Advocate General draws a clinical portrait of the facts judged, which took place on the night of March 7 to 8, 2020 in Lavelanet. “The Epinal image of the cuckolded husband,” continues the magistrate, Kévin being this husband, deceived by Aurélie, the partner with whom he says he is madly in love, with David*, his ex-spouse. But if in the boulevard theater the husband provokes laughter, that is not the case here: “We are more in Rocky Balboa, with the violence which is a real way of managing conflicts. »

But who committed these actions? This is what Pierre Aurignac attempts to clarify, dwelling at length on each element brought forward throughout the debates; in his voice emerges the portrait of a leading Kévin, “a madman with homicidal intent”, and of an accomplice Gaspard, but “who had understood that something was going to go wrong”: “We will tell you that 'he [Kévin] looked for a weapon to protect himself, one against three, but there were no adversaries, there were only sleeping people”, thunders the attorney general, who drives the point home: “This is not was not violence, but an execution, a killing! »

In the accused box, Kévin denies his head throughout the indictment, which concludes as follows: Pierre Aurignac demands 20 years of criminal imprisonment against Kévin and 10 years against Gaspard, accompanied by socio-judicial monitoring, ban from Ariège or to come into contact with the victims, and obligations of care and work.

“A real constraint”

An indictment which follows the pattern invoked by Gaspard's defense, made up of Maîtres Daffis-Costa and Fabbri; however, to a “degree that must be put into perspective”, tempers the first. “An error”, this is what she pleads: “The causal role of the accomplice must be voluntary, he was under duress, there is no prior agreement or encouragement! » insists the lawyer. Her client, she continues, was also a stranger to the love triangle, “a cockfight” as Master Fabbri would later describe it: it was not up to him to resolve this dispute, especially not with such violence.

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Only, what he did that evening, he did it badly, invokes Master Fabbri. “It was the anniversary of his father's assassination attempt on his mother,” describes the lawyer. So, “he knows that he has to go that day,” he continues, to try to dissuade Kévin from going to Aurélie, to try to protect her, as he could not protect his mother. eight years ago, Maître Daffis-Costa will say.

But there was a “real constraint and a real threat” on the part of Kévin, “who needed a spectator to show his omnipotence, in his game of domination”: reason why the two ask the jurors to give their client his freedom.

Two types of factors

It will take nearly an hour for Maître Parra-Bruguière to tell the jurors his client's story, or at least ask them to put themselves, for a moment, in his place. “Be careful, I will never tell you that it is someone else’s fault,” he warns, however. But judging is infinitely more complex than black and white, and you will need to refine it, because 20 years is a significant and disproportionate sentence. »

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Then begins a long plea on endogenous factors, solely the responsibility of his client, and exogenous, external factors, over which Kévin, “a man forged in violence” had no control. “I will never justify domestic violence, but I do not have the feeling that Aurélie, already a mother, aged 19, is a submissive woman, under the influence of a 17 year old kid,” he judges. -he. He repeats again not to move the cursor of responsibility, but always points the finger at Aurélie's “deception” to falsely distance Kévin from this home where he invested, for which he brought money, where his family lived .

So, the lawyer calls on the memories of the jurors, asks them to remember what it is, “those sentimental wounds of adolescence, the most complicated”. It's the story of the cuckoo, the ex who leaves prison and who comes to take Kévin's place, he will say later: “He has his experience, his history, his violence, his cracks, facing a competitor who comes to the house where his son is, his room, his bed, insults him, despises him, humiliates him… I challenge anyone not to react, or at least not to think about it. »

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In this story told by the lawyer, rage confuses everything, which does not necessarily mean that Kévin was alone that evening, his counsel taking care to say that he in no way believes that Gaspard remained at the door of the apartment as he claims. But “this combination of factors contributed to making this man explode,” who continued to wipe his eyes glistening with tears throughout his lawyer’s pleading.