Theatrical twists are rare in front of a criminal court. In the middle of her interrogation, Tuesday November 26, 2024, Praisy N. seemed to overturn the table when “want to assume [s] es actes »without looking “to blame anyone”.
Accused of the murder of Zinedine Guerraoui, stabbed to death on Christmas night 2021 in La Riche, “Junior” – or “Crésus” – as his loved ones call him, for a moment abandoned the path of self-defense hitherto marked out with forceps by his lawyer.
“I am not pleading anything”replied the detainee, while President Aude Cristau questioned him on the second day of his trial. A short interruption allowed him to reframe his strategy, where the civil parties would have hoped to hear the truth. The verdict scheduled to be delivered Wednesday afternoon will tell what effect this vacillation will have had on the popular jury.
“All these people are destroyed because of my actions”
“I can’t deny the fatal blows, they are there. But they were given in self-defense,” Praisy N. was able to recover when the debates resumed. Understand: guilty of a man's death, not his murder.
The nuance is important. It rules out, on this side of the bar, homicidal intent, which is less severely punished. On the other, it is experienced as an insult.
“All the evidence suggests that I wanted to kill Zinedine, concedes Croesus, lucid. But I didn't want to and had no intention of killing him. I started by teasing, throwing barbs, but it wasn't mean, it was just for fun. » He continues. “Either way, I killed someone. Someone I grew up with, played football with, went on nights out with. »
During this second day, Praisy N. added inconsistencies to the contradiction perceived the day before. Compassion too, when describing “pain and shame” felt when Zinedine's sisters and then little brother came to testify.
“All these people [il se tourne vers la salle et la balaye du regard et de la main], they are destroyed because of my actions. I will have that on my conscience all my life. »
“I held the blade”
A timid clearing in a heavy sky. On Wednesday, at the time of deliberation, the jurors and the three magistrates who make up the court will have in their memory the photo of the remains of Zinedine Guerraoui, projected on the screens in the Simone-Veil room. “He had no chance of getting out alive”came to comment in substance on the pathologist Pauline Saint-Martin, detailing the seven wounds, reddened, large, witnesses of the fatal tête-à-tête.
“Croesus”, eyes downcast, did not confront her. “I didn’t realize the seven stab wounds. For me, I only put one […] The others? I don't remember wearing them, it felt like it came out of my body.” was he able to advance during his interrogation.
It was he, this Christmas night 2021, who held the blade. He faces up to thirty years of criminal imprisonment.
“I did what I could”
> Mahfoud B., 38, saw Zinedine Guerraoui die before his eyes on Christmas night 2021 in La Riche. It was he who, at the wheel of his Renault Clio, was the first to come to the aid of the injured young man, seen running in the rue de la Mairie. “He was holding his abdomen and losing a lot of blood. He asked me to take him to the hospital but had a lot of difficulty speaking,” the thirty-year-old came to share, Tuesday November 26, 2024. The former neighbor of the Guerraoui family was returning from Tours Nord when he came across the path of the victim.
“I tried to keep him awake: he had run, he had no more strength… I had time to turn back, run 50 meters then he lost consciousness. » Zinedine Guerraoui, 22 years old, will not wake up again. “I did what I could, I took his pulse, it took me less than ten minutes to transport him to the Alliance clinic in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. » He interrupts: “I did what I could. »
