“Something crazy happened.” These are the first words that Sylvain Gilles lets out in front of his ex-girlfriend. “The crazy thing” is to avoid saying that he just killed a man during a giant barbecue in Sevran. Grégory Hatil, the 33-year-old victim, was hit by four bullets including one in the head. The accused, a 29-year-old man with a disturbing profile, is tried for four days by the Seine-Saint-Denis Assize Court for repeated murder. He escaped indictment for murder, because premeditation was ruled out at the end of the investigation.
On June 10, 2017, the weather was fine and there was a crowd at the barbecue organized by Grégory Hatil in his district of the Butte Montceleux. 250 people responded to the invitation.
Among them Sylvain Gilles. A man who is no stranger to Grégory. In November 2013, a serious altercation had opposed them. They were outside a nightclub when Hatil was attacked by an individual known by the nickname T-Masta. The latter had torn off his gold necklace and stabbed him. He had even fired a shotgun in the air before running away. T-Masta was none other than Sylvain Gilles.
It is therefore a very violent man who finds himself in the box this Tuesday. Member of a gang in Guadeloupe, gun lover, his record shows numerous convictions. He would have already shot someone in 2016. The surviving victim was shot in the back. Violent, he is also violent with his companion of the time that he does not hesitate to beat.
The ex-girlfriend who will help him on his run after Sevran’s murder has also been severely beaten. Sylvain Gilles makes him an uncompromising self-portrait: “I get angry quickly, because I always take things at face value.”
The alleged murderer denies and screams conspiracy
On the evening of the barbecue, Sylvain Gilles slipped in among the guests. He put on a big puffer jacket, rather incongruous in this month of June, and above all he wears around his neck the famous gold necklace stolen 5 years earlier. When he hears the news, Grégory Hatil’s blood only turns. Confrontation is inevitable.
Before going to meet him, he warns a friend: “I must settle my concerns with him. I had wanted to meet him for a while ”. Grégory presents himself, bare hands, in front of Hatil. He hardly has time to open his mouth when Gilles draws a gun and shoots him four times. The shooter fled. Right after the tragedy, he takes the time to go buy himself a McDonald’s, cut his dreadlocks and go to hide in one of his exes. The police did not find him until two and a half months after a runaway in Spain.
Newsletter The essential of 93
A tour of current events in Seine-Saint-Denis and the IDF
—
Tracked down by the police, the suspect managed to escape him twice. He was finally arrested on August 31 in Carquefou (Loire-Atlantique) in the company of one of his many conquests.
Despite the 250 witnesses of the barbecue, Sylvain Gilles remains very tough in custody. He denies his involvement in Grégory’s death and calls out a plot.
Will he maintain the same line of defense during the four days of debates against the victim’s family? Grégory has left behind two young children who want to know why their daddy was shot for a trivial matter of collar.
–
