A 33-year-old man was sentenced, Friday in Besançon, to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for having “randomly” killed a young genius watch engineer whom he did not know, in 2021, during a delirious bout of cocaine .
The Doubs Assize Court found Kevin Berardi guilty of the murder of Thomas Mercier, rejecting the abolition of his discernment, but retaining his impairment at the time of the events, in accordance with the demands of prosecutor Claire Keller.
“I want to remain silent”: during his entire interrogation, the accused answered this sentence over and over again, to dozens of questions asked by the Court and the lawyers. He remained impassive, his gaze fixed and empty, without providing any explanation for his gesture.
An “unbearable silence”
Why did you kill Thomas Mercier whom he did not know? His reasons remain “obscure”, in police custody, “he spoke of hallucinations”, notes the prosecutor. From now on, “Kevin Berardi imposes his unbearable silence on us”.
But the parties agree that he acted during a delusional and mystical episode, a psychotic episode caused by the combined use of cannabis and cocaine two days before the murder.
On November 9, 2021, at around 11:30 a.m., Kevin Berardi went to a building in downtown Besançon and randomly knocked on doors. Thomas Mercier, a brilliant watch engineer, recently graduated from the École des Mines de Paris and living in Besançon for a month, opened the door.
The 30-year-old young man was then sprayed with tear gas, pushed inside his apartment and knocked out with an Italian coffee maker. He collapsed to the ground before being finished off with 22 scissor blows, including a fatal one which pierced his lung and heart.
The attacker goes back to shower, change clothes and get a haircut. At the wheel of his car, he rushes into a police vehicle to flee.
“Know the Devil”
During the afternoon, he will meet several people to whom he will say that he “knows the Devil”, “has seen God” and has “killed a man”, and is ready to kill others. He was finally arrested by the police at 4:50 p.m. and immediately admitted the facts.
“There was indeed madness in Mr. Berardi, before and after the facts, and I want it to be recognized,” forcefully pleaded his lawyer Me Catherine Bresson, demanding in vain that the jurors uphold the abolition of his discernment .
“This man is not an irresponsible raving lunatic, but rather a man who took drugs in full awareness and the effects it had on his behavior. He is responsible for it,” pleaded for the civil party Me Jérôme Pichoff, castigating his “fictitious and useful amnesia”.
