Nordahl Lelandais arrives at Chambéry court where he is tried for the murder of Arthur Noyer – PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP
- Nordahl Lelandais was tried before the Assizes of Savoy for the murder of Arthur Noyer, in April 2017.
- The accused was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a two-thirds safety period.
- The jurors partially followed the demands of the Advocate General, who considered that Arthur Noyer’s death cannot be accidental, as the accused claimed.
When the verdict was announced, the accused remained unmoved. Tried before the Assize Court of Savoy, Nordahl Lelandais was sentenced on Tuesday to a 20-year prison sentence, with a two-thirds security period, for the murder of Arthur Noyer, 23, in April 2017. The jurors deliberated for more than 7 hours seem to have sought a compromise. Earlier in the morning, the general counsel, Thérèse Brunisso, had indeed requested a 30-year prison sentence. For the magistrate, the “will to kill” of the former soldier is beyond doubt in this case.
Throughout the trial, Nordahl Lelandais kept explaining that he had “never wanted” to kill Corporal Noyer on the night of April 11 to 12, 2017. According to his version, he hitchhiked him to Chambéry to drive it a few kilometers further, to Saint-Baldolf. But his passenger, drunk after partying with friends, allegedly accused him of stealing his phone and hit him first. A fight would have broken out. After noticing the accidental death of Arthur Noyer, Nordahl Lelandais would have panicked, put the body of his victim in the trunk of his car, before abandoning it at the edge of a mountain road. “He made the wrong choice”, admitted at the hearing his lawyer, Me Alain Jakubowicz.
“A guy is lost”
Nordahl Lelandais would have thus wanted to “get rid” of the remains of his victim. “There is nothing professional or prepared in all this,” he said. “Mr. Fourniret died yesterday, we are still looking for the bodies of his victims. That is the concealment of a body, ”added the criminal to underline the amateurism of his client. And according to him, the fact that the latter “did not call the police” after the fact does not prove that it was not a “fight” that went wrong. “There is no element, in this file, which establishes the intention of homicide”, he hammered during his plea. Of course, his client is “a guy is lost”, but he had “no reason to kill Arthur Noyer”.
Explanations that could have convinced the jurors … if the accused had not also acknowledged the murder of little Maëlys, at the end of August 2017. “A man who would have killed in spite of himself, would he start killing again less than five months later ? Obviously not, ”explained the general counsel earlier today. Nordahl Lelandais, noted the magistrate, “made sure that we did not know” the truth. She considered that the “will to kill” of the accused is obvious. The latter turned off his phone “just a few minutes after the murder of Arthur Noyer” and spent “a lot of energy” in removing the victim’s body.
“Sexual motive”
The accused, who practices boxing, is 13 cm taller than the victim and weighs 15 kg more. In addition, on the evening of the incident, Arthur Noyer was “very alcoholic” but he was “not aggressive or violent”. “None of these elements allows us to retain the explanations of Nordahl Lelandais as to a possible brawl,” she said. The general counsel also underlined that Arthur Noyer wanted to return to the barracks after this evening. “Why is Nordahl Lelandais driving him to Saint-Baldoph, if not to have a sexual relationship? “For Thérèse Brunisso, the” sexual motive “is therefore” the only one that can be remembered in view of the elements in the file “.
“He hides in his lies and will never, oh never, tell the truth about the circumstances of Arthur Noyer’s death, just to save his skin, just out of cowardice”, pleaded in the morning the lawyer of the family of the victim, Me Bernard Boulloud. Nordahl Lelendais “does not give a damn about the suffering of others, he even enjoys it, this suffering”, he added. For him, if the accused told the truth about the unfolding of the facts, “he would inevitably fall for the Maëlys file”.