A homeless person is being prosecuted in front of the Assises de l’Hérault from this Wednesday until Friday for intentional homicide. This 52-year-old caregiver by training is suspected of having killed, on April 10, 2019, a Biterrois during an evening of drinking in the city center of Béziers.
The attack took place in an apartment lent by an acquaintance of the accused about a hundred meters from the Madeleine church. The suspect, nicknamed Bouba, was known in the neighborhood as a notorious alcoholic, unemployed since 2010.
His victim, homeless, death by strangulation, bore numerous traces of blows to the face and body. This man suffering from a disabling disease was found on the stairs of this building, rue des Têtes.
The alert had been given by the accused around 4 a.m., when a team from the anti-crime brigade passed. He then said thata man was lying in the street downstairs from his house.
The alleged attacker denies the facts, his DNA is found under the fingernails of the victim
The autopsy showed that the childless, 54-year-old victim had a very high blood alcohol level (2.65 grams per liter of blood). This indebted man, who had sunk into alcohol ten years earlier after losing his job, had since been dating marginalized people.
During the investigation carried out by the Montpellier SRPJ, three scenes of violence particularly bloody have been identified. Numerous traces of blood were thus found in the apartment and in the stairwell of this two-storey building.
The mother of the victim, a civil party
This Biterrois, only son, had been taken out of the apartment and found lying lifeless on the stairs between the ground floor and the first floor, heavily swollen face and showing signs of blows all over his body.
His mother, still in shock, placed under reinforced curatorship, filed a civil action. She will not attend her three days of hearing, except for her hearing. “She wants to know the truth, but also to protect herself from the horror of the facts. She has fragile health. This trial will be a real ordeal for her. “says his lawyer Franck Chapuis.
“The facts are appallingly violent. My client was severely beaten. He suffered from various haemorrhages.”
“My client died of strangulation.” Franck Chapuis, the mother’s lawyer
The accused denies the charges changing his version of the facts six times, then accusing other misfits present that night, also in a state of disrepair after an excess of alcohol and narcotics.
The victim, naive, nicknamed “the homeless owner”, suffered from a debilitating disease
The alleged attacker, father of three children, is defined by those close to him as kind, calm and peaceful. However, his criminal record is loaded. Nine convictions of which two for violencefamily abandonment and alcoholism.
In his apartment, many blood spatters were found in multiple places. The defendant, born in Paris, suffering from an alcoholic dependence for 30 years, would have been the victim during his childhood of ill-treatment on the part of his mother.
This man, arrested with a blood alcohol level close to 0.8 grams of alcohol in the blood, had a total control over his victim, calling him prey, to be his thing.
“I am very angry with the witnesses present that day who did nothing, returning home as if nothing had happened. I think they deserved to be prosecuted by the prosecution for failing to assist a person in danger” explains the mother’s lawyer, Me Franck Chapuis.
“The accused became a predator that day. My client, fundamentally nice, was the owner. I am convinced that he became prey. At least during the night.” Frank Chapuis
The victim, in debt, owed 50 euros to his alleged attacker. The psychological expertise carried out confirms a personality disorder in relation to strong affective immaturity.
The victim dragged down the stairs after being killed in the apartment
“I imagine that the defendant did not want the body to be found at his home. In his first statements, he said that the body was in the street. The suspect tried by all means to get my client out of his apartment“says Franck Chapuis.
During his hearing, the nicknamed Bouba, kept changing versions, eventually recognizing an argument and blows belatedly. Marginals will attest to the statements leaving the premises once calm has returned. But another will tell investigators that the alleged murderer had previously told his intention to sequester his victim who owed him 50 euros.
The night of the drama, the upstairs neighbor remembers nuisance
The victim was probably too nice and too naive. “Everyone was asking him for money” tells us someone close to the file. His mother will then confirm that her son was hit regularly by one of his tenants. The investigation will show that the suspect had committed such violence to a debt of 50 euros.
The victim, nicknamed “the homeless owner”, had indeed four properties in Béziers, following an inheritance after the death of his father, but the latter could not benefit from it due to a blocking of succession. Having become marginalized for about ten years after losing a job, this only son regularly came to ask his mother for money.
His alleged killer continues to proclaim his innocence accusing other marginals to whom the victim would not have wanted to lend money. But only the suspect’s DNA was found on the victim’s body, especially under his fingernails and on his right hand. The judicial information ruled out the possible involvement of a third party.