Cn Monday in June 2021, the town hall of Cahuzac, in the Tarn, offers training in “conflict management”. An event in this town of 400 souls. About twenty villagers gather around the large wooden table in the meeting room. The mayor presides over the session surrounded by members of the municipal council. The trainer comes to neighborhood quarrels…
“Is your neighbor angry?” Do not play his game, and rather put off the discussion until tomorrow! she recommends. Rather than rushing headlong into angry subjects, take the height.
The audience listens attentively. Particularly concentrated, a 66-year-old listener takes notes. Municipal councilor since March 2020, Daniel Moreau, known as Aldo, nods his head, emphasizing several times “taking height”. What if that was the key?
Aldo impresses a little, but there is no nicer
Aldo has been embroiled in a dark feud for eleven years now. Driver for the flour factory on the road to Castelnaudary, the man is a central figure in the village. Here, everyone knows him, and waves to him. Massive build and wide-rimmed glasses, Aldo impresses a little, but there is nothing nicer, according to his pétanque and aperitif friends. Except that, since 2010, he never stops getting confused with his neighbor on rue de la Janarderie…
Jonathan B., 35, is a little out of place in the village… Originally from the suburbs, he works in the construction industry in Paris. Initially, he came every weekend to Cahuzac with his wife and children, but since his divorce, he has settled down for good. And the problem is that he doesn’t really like mixing with the locals… As soon as he arrived, the man closed his house with a fence. All day, he stays locked up in his house, shutters closed. Until then, that’s up to him. But, what annoys the neighborhood, those are his rotten cars that he leaves lying in the street, like wrecks suckers. At the end of 2012, Aldo will knock on his home.
– It’s not a case here! gets angry the truck driver.
Neighbor reply:
– I’m at home, I do what I want.
The two men then pretend to ignore each other.
At the time, things stayed that way. The two men then pretend to ignore each other. But, when he is in his own garden, Aldo jokes aloud about the “asshole cars“. Two years pass like this. Probably tired of living alone in the dark, Jonathan signs up for Badoo, a dating app. From his home, Aldo observes with a mocking eye the parade of his conquests.
– Here, a new hen! he sneers. That one, I don’t give her a fortnight!
But, in 2019, a certain Anne-Sophie, blonde, 42, settled down for good. The young woman quickly takes her ease. A former cheerleader, she turns on the music and practices dancing in the yard in her undress… One day in the summer of 2020, Jonathan surprises Aldo watching her.
– Hey, you, get out! he apostrophes. Stop staring at my girlfriend, you filthy voyeur!
The incident triggers months of cold war between the two men. Looks bad. Eloquent silences. But Aldo prepares his counter-offensive. Now a municipal councilor, the man is a little too zealous in enforcing the decisions of the town hall, so much so that he is nicknamed “the sheriff”. However, at the beginning of July 2021, the municipality began work on rue de la Janarderie and temporarily prohibited parking there. The morning of the start of the operations, however, there is still an old car on the asphalt… One of Jonathan’s wrecks, of course! Aldo rushes home. The door is open. He enters. and falls on Anne-Sophie, who comes out of the shower, only draped in her bath towel. Surprised, the young woman screams and asks him to leave, threatening to call the police. But Aldo does not move.
— Your car is interfering with the work, you have to get it out right away! he fumes.
“Jonathan isn’t here, and I don’t have a permit!”
– I do not care ! Get by or I’ll call the pound!
A few days later, another incident
The problem is finally solved. But, a few days later, a new incident. Jonathan and Anne-Sophie are enjoying their new above-ground pool when Aldo tumbles into their garden.
– Get out, big pig! insults the owner of the place.
Aldo explains in vain that he has come to pick up branches, the affair turns into a scene. And it was in these circumstances that a few days later, as we have seen, “the sheriff” of Cahuzac enrolled in the “conflict management” workshop organized by the town hall. There are some valuable tips there. The following months, as if by a miracle, things calmed down. We even see the two neighbors discussing a fire hydrant without getting upset! Unfortunately, the truce will not last…
At midday on February 18, another neighbor was returning home when he spotted Aldo’s car, parked haphazardly on the local road. He approaches and discovers the sexagenarian on the ground next to the vehicle, his skull cut open, near a stick red with blood. He is hardly breathing. Rushed to Toulouse hospital, Daniel Moreau died three days later without regaining consciousness…
The suspect was arrested at his home with his partner
The gendarmes quickly discover the neighborhood conflict which pitted him against Jonathan B. On Saturday, February 26 at 6 a.m., the day of Aldo’s funeral, the suspect was arrested at his home with his partner. Anne-Sophie is quickly released. But not Jonathan, who ends up confessing to the murder under the fire of questions.
The man says that, that morning around 11:30 a.m., he was returning home at the wheel of his 4×4 when he met Aldo who was coming in the opposite direction, also driving. Problem: the path is narrow. One of the two had to pull over to the side to let the other pass. Aldo yields first, and folds his mirror to clear the passage. But Jonathan’s 4×4 is wide, he has his trailer attached, and it doesn’t work.
– Pushes you ! he gets angry, convinced that the other is purposely blocking him.
A fight breaks out between the two men.
Aldo reportedly refused and got out of his car, grabbing a big stick he kept in his trunk. Jonathan descends in turn. The fight breaks out. Aldo hits his opponent in the arm, twice. But he manages to grab the stick and responds with a single blow to the head. Aldo collapses.
– When I left, I saw him trying to get up! says Jonathan.
But did the disastrous scenario really unfold like that? It will be up to the courts to determine that. Indicted for “willful violence resulting in death without intention to give it”, Jonathan B., who remains presumed innocent, was placed in pre-trial detention. The epilogue of a banal quarrel that has become a huge mess, which the town hall’s workshop was unable to prevent… But, for that, Jonathan might have had to participate too!
An investigation by Mathieu Fourquet
