2023-06-27 12:39:44
Sophie Le Tan case
“A criminal mastermind would not be in the box”
On Tuesday, the man suspected of murdering student Sophie Le Tan apologized. However, he maintains that he did not premeditate his act.
PostedJune 27, 2023, 2:39 PM
The accused has long denied the facts.
During three hours of interrogation Tuesday morning before the Colmar Assize Court, Jean-Marc R. tirelessly repeated the same elements of defense already hammered out during the investigation, acknowledging fatal blows to Sophie Le Tanbut rejecting any homicidal intent.
“I am well aware of the pain I have inflicted on the family, I know well that they will never be able to forgive me”. Even before the first question, the accused takes the floor, to express a form of compassion for the relatives of the student, who disappeared on September 7, 2018.
“I would love to go back. I have deep regrets, I can only ask forgiveness from the family, but I know that it is useless”, continues Jean-Marc R. who, for the occasion, left his usual gray T-shirt for a shirt.
Convicted of rape in 2003
On their benches, the civil parties, who came much more numerous than the previous days, showed no reaction. Then begins a real confrontation between the president of the court, Christine Schlumberger, and the man who is suspected of murder, tried as a criminal recidivism following a first sentence of 15 years in prison in 2003 for rape and sexual assault.
The magistrate resumes the thread of the judicial investigation, long of almost three years, concluded then reopened following confessions, and looks into the previous interrogations of the suspect. “You have been heard six times by the examining magistrate, in addition to the reconstitution”, points out the president. “There is no interrogation that is less than 26 pages.”
“Legal Answers”
She recalls the convoluted justifications of the accused to the “surgical” questions of the investigating judge, but also his sharp knowledge of the file and, sometimes, his “legal answers”, as when it comes to distinguishing an assassination intentional homicide or blows resulting in death without intention to give it.
“Yes, I did law”, explains the one who sometimes allows himself to correct the president on points of detail of the file. “Like what, it leads to everything,” coldly replies this one. She returns to the first versions delivered by the accused, who has long refuted any involvement, to the point of absurdity, despite the DNA evidence found on the saw used to dismember the body. “At the time I didn’t know what to say. It was stupid. I was in a system of denial”, explains Jean-Marc R., almost contrite.
But on the existence of an organized criminal project, anticipated, the accused is unstoppable. “You think that a serious renter gives bogus appointments, uses several lines (telephone), dates and different announcements”, is surprised Christine Schlumberger.
“You’re wasting your breath”
This game of questions and answers continues all morning, Jean-Marc R. always having a good reason to put forward. The sleeping pills he had? Prescribed by his doctor for his sleep disorders. Multiple phone lines? Easier than going to buy credit refills. Exchanges with potential tenants that are almost exclusively female? Female students are “more careful” than their male counterparts.
The accused even went so far as to attempt to turn to his advantage the elements of the investigation which made it possible to go back to him, to contest the premeditation: “If you want to assassinate someone, you do not use a telephone with which you call acquaintances, you do not post an ad on the internet”, he remarks. “You call me a criminal mastermind, but a criminal mastermind wouldn’t be in the box today.”
And the defense lawyer, Me Emmanuel Spano, to declare: “This is your last chance”. “Do you think you have said everything?”. “I said everything, down to the smallest detail,” his client assures him. “I don’t kill people for fun. I did not want to kill Sophie Le Tan, I did not premeditate anything in this direction.
(AFP)
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