At the material time, in June 2018, the two accused were 17 years old. From Tuesday, behind closed doors before the Reims Assize Court for minors, they face up to thirty years of criminal imprisonment if the excuse of minority is not accepted, twenty years if it is. “The ambivalence of the relationship of the murderous duo is undoubtedly one of the essential subjects of the file” explained the prosecutor of the Republic of Reims, Matthieu Bourrette, following the arrest of the two teenagers, two days after the tragedy.
One question should dominate the debates: O., then a high school student, was she the inspiration for the savage murder of her ex-boyfriend Kevin, also 17, killed with rage by about thirty stab wounds by A., a flirt of the time? A direct witness to the homicide, O. has always disputed having sponsored and co-organized the death of Kevin, with whom she had for a few years had complicated romantic relationships made up of breakups and reconciliations.
Death trap
However, A. implicates him without ambiguity and with the same consistency since his placement in police custody on June 4, 2018. The high school student, passionate about weapons and reenactments of military war episodes, madly in love with O. according to his entourage, had admitted very quickly before investigators to be the author of the fatal blows on Kevin with an American knife of the 1940s, a gift from his family. He explained that he organized this criminal project with the active complicity of O. from May 2018.
According to him, O. had told him that Kevin had sexually assaulted her and was harassing her via social media. It was necessary to take revenge. Corroborated by the analysis of the numerous telephone and SMS exchanges between A. and O. as well as by the study of their internet research, her version of a carefully prepared trap has never changed. The statements of O. however, have continued to change. However, it has been established that she did meet the victim in the Bois des Soeurs park, where he was killed on June 2, 2018, when the two former lovers had not seen each other for three months.
Wrong path
In addition, the investigation confirmed that O. and A. did meet an hour before the murder, at the media library of Mourmelon-le-Grand, to complete the final details of the ambush extended to the victim, and the scenario of a false composite portrait. The high school student thus admitted to being at the origin of the idea to send the gendarmes on a false track by describing to them the assailant of Kevin as a man of the swarthy type that she did not know.
This description had also triggered a torrent of racist comments on the internet. “I refuse to get used to this barbarism which kills the youth of France” wrote Marine Le Pen in a quickly deleted tweet. Presented by many classmates as “liar” and “manipulator”, O. did not convince the examining magistrate of her proclaimed innocence. She is being prosecuted for murder in the same way as the author of the fatal blows.
“I committed an act of extraordinary gravity (…). The facts deserve to be punished so I renounce having freedom” wrote the latter in June 2019 to explain to the investigating judge that he renounced to benefit from a procedural flaw to temporarily regain his freedom. O., will appear free in court. The lawyers of the parties did not wish to communicate before this hearing, the verdict of which is expected on January 29.
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