A 23-year-old young man has been on trial since Monday before the Indre-et-Loire Assize Court, in Tours. He is accused of having killed a young resident of La Riche of seven stabbings almost three years ago, during Christmas night. The alleged perpetrator had been arrested a few days after the incidentin the street, in an industrial zone, after three days of intense searches and several searches. An alleged murderer who in court denies any desire to kill.
On the evening of the tragedy, the young man confirmed that he was heavily intoxicated, an addiction to alcohol which is not new. “By hanging out outside, hanging out with people who were drinking, I was drinking. I’ve been drinking since I was 16”says the accused. Every two days, he says he gets a bottle of whiskey or vodka, which he empties for an evening.
And yet he says it,“He has the wrong alcohol. When I drink, my emotions increase tenfold, I can be super happy and sometimes I can get angry.” Alcohol which allows him to “empty“, he who recounts having lived on the street from the age of 16 to the age of 20 and his incarceration in pre-trial detention. A life far from the home of his father who remains a personal choice. “I wanted to be independent.” What follows for the young man is four years of life on the street, but also with relatives, friends, his girlfriend whom he rapes, and the birth of a child, from whom he remains detached. He has no longer had any contact since his incarceration.
No intention to kill “his friend”
The young man has no diploma and his schooling is chaotic, after his arrival from the Congo at the age of 13. An arrival in France, where his integration was not easy. “I thought life in France was easier”he assures. The accused is described by an expert on the stand as subject to an impulse overflow, a failure in one's emotional management due to alcohol but also to great immaturity. A life without limits, sums up the expert with a breaking point, that of murder.
A murder that the accused does not deny, except the intention to kill “his friend”without having a word for the victim and his family. An accused described by the various witnesses of the scene, on the stand, as “violent, known to always have a knife with him.” The accused claims to have only one desire after this affair, to take control of his life.
No reason?
Several direct witnesses took the stand this Monday. Witnesses who still do not explain the reason for the tragedy. No explanation either from the investigator interviewed.
