Valentin Marcone, the killer of the Cévennes sawmill, sentenced to thirty years in prison

2024-01-29 19:25:12

Valentin Marcone, an uneventful thirty-year-old overwhelmed by paranoia, was sentenced Monday January 29 by the Gard Assize Court to thirty years in prison for the murder of his boss and one of his colleagues in a sawmill in the Cévennes in May 2021. The prosecution had asked to add a security period of twenty years, but the jury estimated, after two and a half hours of deliberation, that fifteen years of security, the automatic duration for thirty-year sentences, was a sufficient duration.

On the other hand, as requested by Attorney General Bertrand Baboulène, the jurors ruled out premeditation. And, like him, they estimated that the accused, now 32 years old, « super-papa » of a little girl, according to her relatives, was suffering from disorders which impaired her discernment at the time of the events.

“He takes full responsibility for his actions and accepts this relatively lenient decision in view of the requests of the General Advocate”commented after the verdict one of the accused’s lawyers, Florence De Prato, specifying that“a priori he does not plan to appeal a decision that he accepts”.

“I need to get treatment to understand how much I have unlocked”declared the accused, speaking one last time before the jury retired to deliberate. “Justice has been served. The hardest part for our customers will certainly be the tortuous path to resilience”declared Rémy Nougier, lawyer for the civil parties.

In a wild boar hole

On May 11, 2021, shortly after arriving at work, at the sawmill in the village of Plantiers, 250 inhabitants, Valentin Marcone shot his boss, Luc Teissonnière, 54, twice in the head. A few seconds later, this sports shooter, capable according to him of hitting his target at 300 meters, shot Martial Guérin, 32, one of his colleagues, hit in the temple. He had not given them “no chance of getting out of this”insisted the prosecutor.

Valentin Marcone had only spared the company’s youngest employee, Vincent Amalric, then 19 years old, who had fled and called for help.

After killing his two colleagues, Valentin Marcone hid in the heart of the Cévennes, in a wild boar hole, triggering a manhunt which mobilized hundreds of gendarmes. He surrendered after three days.

During his trial, he explained that he ” freak out “ because his boss had criticized him ” to not [lui] having said hello » : “I said to Luc: “Are you kidding me?” Martial said to me: “Are you crazy?” I took out my gun, I[e lui] I shot it »Valentin Marcone said on Thursday, his youthful face seeming to express no expression.

Paranoia and a taste for weapons

More “the mobile is not there”not in this “hello story”nor in this conflict over overtime, which ” was set up “or in a possible dismissal project, estimated the Advocate General on Monday in his indictment.

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No, for the prosecutor, “the seed of crime, [Valentin Marcone] has carried it within him for many years: by his status as a victim, real or supposed, by the fact that he was a dyslexic child, rejected by others. But because we are dyslexic, are we going to kill our boss, our colleagues? »underlined the prosecutor.

The reasons are also to be found in this life behind closed doors where the young father had practically locked himself away with his wife, in the paranoia and the rigid personality that he had built over the course of his conflicts with his employers, in his “immoderate taste” for weapons, in its « sentiment d’injustice » which bordered on conspiracy.

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In its verdict, the court also sentenced Valentin Marcone to ten years of psychiatric follow-up and ordered the confiscation of the dozen weapons, including a sniper rifle and an assault rifle, that he possessed. Upon his release from prison, he will also be prohibited from going to Plantiers or neighboring villages for ten years. “He saw himself a bit like a sheriff, that made him very dangerous”concluded the Advocate General.

The World with AFP