The jurors of the Loiret Assize Court pronounced life imprisonment with 18 years of security against Malick Sow, prosecuted for murder as a legal recidivism. The accused had killed with several stab wounds his ex-girlfriend Lucie, in May 2018 at the foot of his building rue Joseph Soulas station district in Orléans. The public prosecutor had requested 22 years of security. The end of a trial of a fusional relationship, of shattered destinies and families in pain and grief.
Premeditation and ambush
On the 3rd day, this March 25, of the trial of Malick Sow, the jury of the Loiret Assize Court heard the arguments of the lawyers of the civil parties, the requisitions of the public prosecutor and the defense of the accused. For the Advocate General, there is no doubt. Marie-Cécile Santin begins her requisitions with this first sentence “I think it’s clear, it’s an assassination”. Since the beginning Malick Sow says he has collaborated with the investigators, the examining magistrate, the Court by recognizing the facts but “It’s wrong, it’s up to you, ladies and gentlemen, to restore the judicial truth of May 26” she says. The magistrate continues: “not the truth of unthoughtful gestures, of a simple intention to hurt, of an uncontrollable anger as the accused keeps repeating, but that of a murder committed with premeditation or ambush”. The qualification of the assassination provided for by article 221 paragraph 3 of the penal code.
Who knows the truth? – Me Laguens
The determination of the accused who comes early to Orléans by train with a knife in his backpack, his wait at the foot of the stairs in the hall, the relentlessness on his victim, there is for the lawyer general well and good “determination and ambush in this crime”. “During your deliberation take the time to count up to 20 ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the time for 20 stab wounds, you will see it is long” she adds. During a plea of nearly two hoursMalick Sow’s lawyer defended the share “irrational” surrounding this folder. Without minimizing the facts and justifying them, Me Anne-Sophie Laguens asked the question “of the truth that we may never know, who knows it? Malick, Lucie surely, not me, in his bubble there is what he said, what he could say, maybe be not what he would have wanted to say” she says. She advances: “Did he want to kill? I’m not sure” then add “keep a little humanity ladies and gentlemen of the jury so that he still remains standing”.
Fallilou’s letter
Between requisitions and defense pleadings, the lawyers of Lucie’s family pleaded before the Court. “A family that suffers with all its being” indicates Me Delphine Janvier-Lupart who defends Lucie’s mother, sisters and aunt. And then there are Lucie’s three children who will take time to regain some semblance of normal life. They who make a sacred covenant, welded as their mother had asked them if something bad happens, don’t attend this last audience. Too hard, too painful. But without being there physically, Fallilou, this son who from the window of the apartment on the 3rd floor saw his mother die, insisted on being present through a letter read by his lawyer Me Sophie Monany and which is addressed to Malick Sow. “I was 12, I was happy, you killed my mother who had three children, you are a weakling, shame on you, I am 16 and I am standing, we are united and we live as if mum was there with us”. During a break in the hearing after having testified in turn, Lucie’s mother and Malick’s sister hugged.