“He felt threatened, it was sure that it would end badly”: the sister of the accused of the Plantiers killing testifies

Un des gilets pare-balles saisi au domicile de l'accusé de près de 50 kg. Midi Libre – Michael Esdourrubailh

Valentin Marcone is on trial for two assassinations perpetrated in the town of Plantiers, in the Cévennes Gardoises, on May 11, 2021. He had shot dead his boss, Luc Teissonnière, and a work colleague, Martial Guérin, at the village sawmill. nbsp;

Valentin Marcone, 32 years old, has been on trial since Wednesday January 24 for a double intentional homicide with premeditation, committed on May 11, 2021 in the town of Plantiers, in the Cévennes.< /p>

Subject to paranoid tendencies, introverted and unsociable, he could not have tolerated his boss discussing his supposed dismissal with a colleague and would have shot them down.

What to remember from the morning of this Thursday, January 25, second day of hearing ? Two highlights.

The hearing of Elsa, the victim's sister. In tears, she spoke of her brother watching her from the dock.

In this long, poignant testimony, she notably recounted her exchanges with Valentin Marcone during the visiting rooms.

"He explained to me that he had heard that he was going to be fired… He felt threatened , I knew that he had installed cameras in his house and his car, but that didn't turn me on" she admits very honestly.“By bullying, he was harassed as a child, by failures… It's sure it would end badly… But it's unimaginable".

"No chance of survival"

The sister also mentions the "delirious puff" mentioned by Me Florence De Patro, l&#39 ;one of Valentin Marcone's two lawyers, a few months after his incarceration. He calls her from prison.

"He told me that someone was going to come and kill us and that we were the first on the list and m&# 39;asked if I didn’have a GPS tracker under my car".

The forensic doctor came to describe the causes of the death of the two victims with this implacable observation: "they died instantly, no chance of survival, the skull was shattered.

Ballistics expert Alain Artuso described the trajectories of the bullets, fired from just a few meters away with a semi-automatic pistol.

Martial Guérin was killed by a bullet to the temple which passed through the head.

A second shot in the neck of the sawmill boss

Luc Teissonnière was first hit by a projectile fired from the front, into the lip and which came out through the ear without being fatal. The second shot is in the back of the neck.

"The second shot, in the neck, is made when the victim has turned his back" questions Advocate General Bertrand Baboulène.

"By the time the victim turns around" replies the expert.

"To shoot twice, you have to press twice or it's automatic ?"

 "You have to press twice, it's semi-automatic".

"We know that he walked with his pistol outside the shooting ranges…" continues the representative of the prosecution.

"Ah the transport, except legitimate must be direct, he cannot go to Carrefour to do his shopping and he cannot go to work with his weapon".

"The sports shooter knows it ?".

"Yes".