It was a year ago. On the night of November 18 to 19, 2023, Thomas, a 16-year-old high school student and amateur rugby player, died in the ambulance after receiving a stab wound while participating in the “winter ball” of Crépol, a village of 500 inhabitants in the Drôme.
That evening, the party degenerated when a fight broke out between young rugby players and a group from Romans-sur-Isère, a town located around fifteen kilometers away. In a confusing context, some people pulled out knives and seriously injured four people, including Thomas who died as a result of his injuries. One after the fact, where is the investigation? 20 Minutes takes stock of this matter.
Still no perpetrator of the fatal blow identified
After twelve months of investigations, 14 people, including three minors, were indicted for “intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide by an organized gang”. They risk life imprisonment. But in one year, despite the hearing of around a hundred witnesses, with an investigation file which includes more than 350 hearings, and the existence of videos, the investigators have still not acquired certainty about the author. of the fatal blow. All the accused, eight of whom remain in detention, deny their responsibility, even if suspicions focus on two or three of them, according to a source close to the case.
According to RTL information, some of the suspects admit to having thrown barriers, punched and kicked “to defend a friend”, or to having very briefly gotten involved in the fight… But none admit to having been “beyond” in the violence and having dealt the fatal blow.
Fourteen indicted but “not fourteen murderers”
According to an interview consulted by national radio, the young people of Romans-sur-Isère met the day after the events to “find out what attitude they adopted”. Among them, seven fled to Toulouse before being arrested by the GIGN. The hearings also reveal that the majority of those indicted destroyed or disappeared their cell phones and the clothes they wore on the night of the ball. “There are 14 indicted but not 14 murderers,” summarizes Maître Elise Rey-Jacquot who defends two men with her colleague Bilel Hakkar. She defends the scenario of a “prom fight that escalates, not an organized, planned, racist attack”.
Thomas' family 'ready to wait'
Thomas' family, received last week by the two investigating judges with other victims, is ready to wait the time necessary for the investigations, according to their advisor Me Alexandre Farelly. They have “confidence” in justice and demonstrate “patience”. “If we want it to be rendered qualitatively, we must give it this time,” explains the lawyer. “It’s an ordinary family, confronted with something beyond their control. And they manage to remain dignified,” he emphasizes. “It is always difficult, on a single scene of violence, to identify a stabbing perpetrator, in the face of people who do not always want to speak,” notes Master Denis Dreyfus.
The lawyer is preparing to represent several victims, including the ball organizing committee and young people injured during the evening. Some “had not yet found the strength” to take the step of filing a civil suit after a “traumatic scene”, he notes.
A political recovery by the extreme right
For all the protagonists, it was also necessary to manage the media and political echo of the affair, invading the feeds of social networks, but also the streets, with rallies of the ultra-right “for Thomas” in several cities.
Two identity associations attempted to become civil parties, without success. To justify their action, they relied on the words of nine witnesses (out of 104) who say they heard hostile comments “to white people” on the evening of the tragedy. But others “heard rugby players wanting to 'hit the ball'” after the arrival of the young people, said Master Romaric Chateau, the lawyer for one of the suspects, at the time. The prosecution, for lack of evidence to this effect, did not consider aggravating circumstances linked to “race, ethnicity, nation or religion”.
Other convictions linked to this case
In one year, several convictions were still handed down, linked to this affair. Among them, five people received five months suspended prison sentences for having participated in an ultra-right parade a few days after the high school student's death. The Valence criminal court also sentenced a 27-year-old man to fourteen months in prison, six of which were suspended, for having threatened to “decapitate” Marie-Hélène Thoraval, the LR mayor of Romans-sur-Isère, and for wanting to “juggle with his skull.”
Finally, at the end of last October, nine Internet users were sentenced to sentences ranging from a fine of 500 euros to four months in prison, for having distributed hateful messages and the names and addresses of suspects in the teenager's murder.
