Justice. Meurtre du caporal Noyer : Nordahl Lelandais campe sur sa version des faits
Le Dauphiné Liveblog, Day 5
6:05am: Thursday, for the fourth day of the trial of Nordahl Lelandais, the hearings of witnesses and experts continued for much of the day. But it was the words of the family members of Corporal Arthur Noyer, in the evening, which left their mark. "Sometimes you can run into a real bad guy," said the father. "One day I had a nightmare Arthur was calling me 'mummy come and save me I'm cold'. I woke up but there was no call," the mother said.
"Nordahl, you destroyed our lives. How can you look your best mate in the eye yesterday and deny it? You may have locked yourself in your reality but you know the truth," Quentin, Arthur's brother, asked the accused. You're going to have to man up and take charge of your situation. I'm sorry I have to say all this."
This Friday, Nordahl Lelandais will be questioned on his version of events.
8:25am: Nordahl Lelandais arrives at the court of Savoy in Chambéry, for the fifth day of his trial.
9:26: The hearing begins. Nordahl Lelandais will be questioned.
9:28am:
The president François-Xavier Manteaux. "My goal is to make sure that we understand if everything is consistent or if there are elements of inconsistency."
9h31 :
President: "Former companions have spoken of pathological liar, impulsiveness. Do you agree?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Pathological liar, I don't know what that means. Yes, sometimes I lied. Impulsivity? Yes, sometimes I got carried away but there was never any violence.
9h38 :
President: "When one of them shows you unequivocal text messages about you cheating on her and that you had told her that they were lies..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes... I denied it at the time. I explained later why. I didn't dare tell her that I had deceived her."
President: "In custody you said 'I didn't kill anyone, there was no assassination'. Why?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It was very hard. I know what an assassination is and Arthur Noyer I never wanted to kill him. Every day they talked about me on TV, everything came out in the press and it was distorted. It was complicated to say that I had killed a man.
President: "Between 12 April 2017 and the end of 2017 nobody talked about you on TV. But you didn't show up at the gendarmerie to say what you had done. Why? There was no media though."
Nordahl Lelandais: "I didn't have the courage. It was very complicated to explain. To come to say 'yes I killed a man'."
9h45 :
President: "In police custody, you are asked if it is possible that you had physical contact with the victim? You answer 'I don't know'..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "At the time, I didn't want to admit to the fight.
President: "The evening of the events you contacted a girl..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes, to have a sexual relationship.
President: "You also contacted a man."
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes.... to have a sexual relationship."
President: "You then go to Chambéry. We see you on video walking through the streets. We see you driving around for two hours. What was the aim?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I often came to Chambéry, I had friends. I sometimes came for a drink without any other thought.
President: "Were you looking for friends or girlfriends?
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes, I wanted to continue my evening.
President: "And you know so many people that for two hours you are not seen with anyone?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It's true that evening, I didn't see anyone.
President: "Need to be with your friends okay. And no need to tell them?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Of course that's what I should have done, I'm aware of that."
President: "This behaviour is consistent with a man who caused the death of a person 36 hours before?
9h52 :
President: "In custody, you say 'I had nothing to do with Arthur Noyer and these human remains'. The gendarmes say that you were detached from the facts with a clear neutrality..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "I had difficulty expressing certain feelings, yes."
President: "In January 2018 you were questioned again, the investigating judge gave you new information..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "I came to the truth but I did not know how to explain myself."
President: "Your companion called you (in the visiting room), you said again that you had nothing to do with it. Was that lying again?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "On any channel on TV, they were talking about me, everything was spread out. It blocked me, I couldn't express myself."
President: "When you were in custody in the Maëlys case, there was nothing in the press..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "The press gave everything away immediately.
President: "And why didn't you give everything immediately?
Nordahl Lelandais: "It was too complicated... a bit of cowardice too."
9h59 :
President: "In February 2018, you admit to having taken Mr Noyer in your car and you give a version where you had dropped him off before leaving. Was that the truth?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "No, I wanted to come to the truth but I didn't know how to do it."
President: "On 29 March 2018, new interrogation. Does that remind you of anything?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "The day I confessed."
President: "You say you were injured in the eyebrow..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "I wanted to inflate this attack, this fight. It's complicated to explain having taken the life of a young man.
President: "You understand that we wonder where the truth is in your different versions?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It took me a long time to come to the truth... in stages."
10h02 : President: "His friends and witnesses said on the stand that that evening, Arthur Noyer's goal was to go back to the barracks to sleep. Where is the 13th BCA?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Barby."
President: "Where did you go?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Saint-Baldoph."
President: "Why?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "He asked me."
President: "Everyone said he wanted to go back to his bed. Why Saint-Baldoph?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "...he asked me."
President: "That's your answer... we're writing it down."
10h10 : President: "We have seen the videos of Mr Noyer in the discotheque. He was visibly drunk. Was this person vigorous to throw a punch?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "At that time no."
President: "Do we agree that his death comes quickly after your arrival in Saint-Baldoph?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
President: "You turn off your phones because he is dead?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
President: "You say you did CPR to save him. Why didn't you call the emergency services?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I would have liked to have a manual of emotions, I didn't know what to do."
President: "You really didn't know what to do, Mr Lelandais? Were you crying and running around in circles? Didn't you have the idea to call your best friend?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Of course I would have liked to know what to do..."
President: "You didn't know what to do but you still had the presence of mind to turn off your phones. Are we in a panic here?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I don't know... what should one do in a panic?"
10h18 : President: "You never turn off your phones for more than two hours usually. The only two times they stay off longer is that night and in the Maëlys case. Was the aim to go unnoticed to your home?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
President: "What did you do when you arrived at your home?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "From the Marocaz pass, I have no memory."
President: "And later in the evening?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "A movie."
Chairman: "And the film?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Fast and Furious."
President: "And the next day, the 13th?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "The nightclub."
President: "Did you have to go there?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Not an obligation but I had to see people. I was in denial."
President: "Mr Lelandais, can you explain what you did in Saint-Baldoph for two and a half hours on the night of the events?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I drove around in circles to try to drop off the body. I drove along small roads, small paths. I was looking for a discreet place.
President: "Where the body would not be found for a long time? that the cause of death could no longer be determined?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Not at all."
President: "Yet he was just as dead in Saint-Baldoph and in Marocaz. His body could have been found earlier. You heard from his mother yesterday about his last wishes. So why?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It was too visible a place to dump a dead person."
President: "You wanted to escape your responsibilities?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
10h31 : President: "Why Marocaz?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I knew the road, I had ridden it on my motorbike. I knew that the place was appropriate to leave a body and that it would not be found."
President: "You leave him by the side of the road?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
President: "But you just said that in Saint-Baldoph he was too visible..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "There was a descent. The body slid all the way down."
- The president conducts an excellent interrogation and does not let any inconsistencies pass. -
10h43 : President: "The reconstructions with a dummy showed that he was still visible from the road if you just put him down..."
Nordahl Lelandais: "I was in a panic, I had just killed a man, I was not lucid."
President: "But you still have the lucidity to drive 30 km on a mountain road?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I didn't choose the precise location. At some point I had to put the body down."
President: "How did you place the body in your vehicle?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "I took him under my arms. Afterwards I brought his legs in."
President: "How was he dressed?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Light jeans, a T-shirt and a jacket.
President: "We found his jacket with his bones in it. So he had it on him. Why did you say that you had taken his jacket off him?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It's not an accurate description. It's perhaps incomprehensible. It was to say that I didn't want to dirty the car so I put the jacket over his head.
President: "Did you turn off Arthur Noyer's phone at 4am?
Nordahl Lelandais: "No."
President: "Did you consume cocaine that evening and in what quantity?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes, like every day, in significant quantities."
President: "You didn't admit it before the examining magistrate. Were you lying?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It was completely stupid... talking about cocaine, there was nothing serious compared to the facts."
10h55 : Nordahl Lelandais: "It was hard to admit that I was a drug addict."
President: "What were the effects of cocaine on you?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "It made me feel good, joyful, it delayed the effects of alcohol."
President: "Did you have any weapons in your vehicle?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "At one time I had a brass knuckle. A Swiss Army knife. When I was 18 I had a telescopic baton."
President: "Mr. Lelandais in the Maëlys case, did you admit to the facts immediately?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "No."
President: "What explanations did you give initially?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "That it was not me."
President: "What explanations did you give when you admitted being involved?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "That I had hit her."
President: "It's the same explanation as for Arthur Noyer."
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes, that I never wanted him dead.
President: "On the night of the Maëlys case, you turn off your phones?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
President: "You leave her in a discreet place where you were sure she would not be found?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
President: "Do you see any similarities in the modus operandi?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes."
......
President: "Why did you pick up Arthur Noyer that evening and not drop him off wherever he wanted in Barby?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "That evening, he was hitchhiking, I picked him up, I didn't say to myself that he was going to vomit or that his feet were dirty. And he wanted to go to Saint-Baldoph."
President: "Your former cellmate spoke of a sexual purpose."
Nordahl Lelandais: "No, never, not at all."
President: "There is no criminal motive in this case. And many testimonies speak of your heterosexual and homosexual needs. That evening, were you looking for the possibility of a sexual contact with someone?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "My relationships with men or women have always been consensual."
President: "Yes, but that evening, were you looking for a sexual encounter as they say?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "No, not that evening. I was looking for friends."
President: "You are accused of a sexual assault on the daughter of a friend."
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes, but I will explain myself before another court."
11h04 :
President: "In 2017, your judicial journey begins in February with an altercation at a car wash and ends in August 2017 with the Maëlys case."
Nordahl Lelandais: "I lost myself in that year. I didn't know what I was doing anymore. My way of life was that, I had no goal. Everything I tried to do fell apart. At some point I just exploded. My life was all about failure."
11h09 :
President: "You were the godfather of this girl. Do you know what the parents asked the parish?"
Nordahl Lelandais: "No, but I deduce that they must have asked that I no longer be the godfather."
President: "You have ruined everything, Mr Lelandais, even on a family level."
Nordahl Lelandais: "Yes, I am aware of that. I would like to go back. I also ruined the lives of Arthur's family and friends."
11:17:
Questioned by the court, Nordahl Lelandais maintains that the motive for the fight was indeed the fact that Arthur Noyer believed that the accused was the thief of his phone.
President: "Why does he blame you for this theft?
Nordahl Lelandais: "I think it's when he's with me and I say to him 'hey your phone'. That must have brought up something negative in him."
The hearing is suspended for 10 minutes.
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