“I was in a panic”. This Friday morning, Nordahl Lelandais again denied any intention to kill Arthur Noyer when he dealt him the fatal blows in a “fight”, without seeming to convince the president of the Assize Court of Chambéry, dubious on its successive versions of the facts.
On the fifth day of his trial for the murder of the 23-year-old soldier in April 2017, President François-Xavier Manteaux began the hearing with these words: “today, my goal is not to make you confess, we is not in there ”,“ the confession is only one proof among others ”. But faced with the president’s questions and as since the start of the trial, Nordahl Lelandais sticks to the story of an argument that went wrong in a parking lot in the suburbs of Chambéry.
“I never wanted to kill him”
From the first minutes of the interrogation, Nordahl Lelandais repeats: “I never wanted to kill him. Never, never, never. ” Thursday evening, several members of Arthur Noyer’s family, who do not believe in this scenario, had urged him to tell the truth.
Why then, in his version, after the fight, the accused gives a cardiac message, but does not call for help ?, asks President Manteaux. “At that point, I should have had a manual of emotions to know what to do. But at that point, I don’t know what to do. ” “It’s complicated to see someone fall in front of me after being punched,” the accused, wearing a white shirt, replied to the court.
He was turning off the two phones
“Mr. Lelandais, you did not know what to do, you have the presence of mind to turn off your two cell phones [juste après la mort d’Arthur Noyer] ? ” “Yes.”
“Were you in a panic?” “Yes, I was in a panic.”
“Someone in a panic, does he turn off his cell phone?” “I don’t know,” said Nordahl Lelandais.
Then, Nordahl Lelandais places Arthur Noyer’s body in the trunk of his Audi. Why ? “To hide the body”. “So as not to be spotted?” asks the president. “Yes, I would not have wanted him to stay in the parking lot” where the fight would have taken place, answers the accused in the box, hands joined.
“It has always been distorted, what I said”
President Manteaux then questioned him about his version of the facts during his first police custody in this case, on December 18, 2017. The accused then denied outright. “Why ?”
“It was a special moment, every day we talked about me on TV, we said completely wrong things, as soon as I started to say something, it immediately came out in the press. It has always been distorted, what I said, it was difficult to speak, ”he explains.
“I had to come to the truth”
“Do you understand that we are wondering where the truth is?” On the first [version] ? The second ? The third ? In an other ? In the fourth? ”President Manteaux asks the accused. “I’m telling you, Mr. President, I had to come to the truth. I went there in stages. ”
The questioning of the accused is to continue at the end of the morning. A verdict is expected around May 12.