Nearly three years ago, the body of a 17-year-old high school student was found buried in a field in Yzosse (Landes). The trial of a young man tried for murder and a 19-year-old girl accused of complicity opened Thursday in Mont-de-Marsan. The court’s verdict is expected on December 9 after 12 days of hearings which will be held behind closed doors because the defendants, in pre-trial detention, were minors at the time of the events.
A drama set against a backdrop of love rivalry
The defense had pleaded in this direction, wishing “that justice be done in a courtroom rather than on the sidewalks”, in the words of Me Arnaud Dupin, lawyer for the young girl accused of complicity, aged 16 in the time. On February 1, 2020, in this town near Dax, the two defendants had agreed to meet the victim in an isolated place, making him believe that only the teenager would show up there, according to the ‘charge.
It was actually her boyfriend, tried for murder, who showed up at the meeting, with gloves and a stick, to “give a good beating” to the victim, against a backdrop of love rivalry. He maintains, however, that the sole purpose of the meeting was to obtain explanations. For Me Dupin, the young girl was “in a situation of non-consented sexual act” with the deceased high school student. “It is his truth and I hope it will be heard. An argument that the lawyers for the parents of the victim sweep away, who came to the hearing with a large portrait of their son. “We make him pass for what he was not,” laments Me Nathalie Clément.
The accused admitted having “squeezed the neck” of the victim and “hit his head on the ground”, before burying his body in a field, a few meters away. For his advice, Me Simon Cohen, the jurors will have to keep in mind that they are judging adolescents, with “their madness, their daydreams and their outbursts”. “Wasting three lives because one was destroyed, I don’t think it’s fair or reasonable, you have to save what can be saved,” he adds. A third teenager, currently under judicial supervision, is also on trial for the related offense of failure to prevent a crime.
No less than 50 witnesses and more than a dozen experts will appear before the court during these twelve days.