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En direct. Procès Narumi : Zepeda « a condamné l'âme de Narumi à errer dans l'obscurité », revivez les plaidoiries des parties civiles
9 h 45. - In the absence of a confession, the stakes are high
The stakes on this 10th day are high. The closing arguments are an opportunity for each side to convince the jury. The emphasis is on eloquence, clever phrases and public speaking in the strict sense of the term. Common objective: to convince, convince and convince!
The session is highly anticipated. In the absence of a confession, the positions of the defence and the prosecution are radically opposed and very conflicting. Everything remains possible.
Unusually - but in this trial everything will be until the end - it is planned that after the defence pleadings at the end of the day, the jury will not leave to deliberate. The three judges and the six jurors will go home tonight for a night of reflection, before meeting again tomorrow morning to deliberate in closed session on the fate of Nicolas Zepeda.
10 h 05. - Narumi's family's lawyer begins with a quote
The hearing resumes: the lawyer for Narumi's relatives, Sylvie Galley, steps into the centre of the courtroom.
The criminal lawyer rekindles in the minds of the jurors one of the first powerful images of this trial, that of "an accused who came with his hand over his heart to tell you of his innocence. On the civil party side, a mother and a sister were huddled together, completely destroyed...
Me Galley launches a first quote, borrowed from a writer: "Without a trial, you have to make a choice between tears, you can't cry for the murderer and for the civil parties at the same time."
The lawyer recalls the testimony of Taeko Kurosaki last Thursday, the mother who has been deprived of all happiness since Narumi's disappearance, "who came with great devotion to pay tribute to her daughter and explain from the depths of her soul how intense her pain was". This brought the trial into "a dimension of dignity, of modesty".
"It is the modest tears of the civil parties that you should privilege in considering as guilty the one who stands in the dock," the lawyer for the Kurosaki family encourages, while castigating in her calm voice "the lies, denials, contradictions developed by Nicolas Zepeda".
Sitting in his box, head slightly bent, Nicolas Zepeda listens attentively to the opening of Me Galley's plea.
10 h 15. - "The worst of the absences"
"The defence will fervently plead the innocence of Nicolas Zepeda who is also a son, a brother," Me Galley points out, "but it will be superior to the civil parties that I represent, that they plead life. Whereas I am condemned to plead for the worst kind of absence: the death of a young woman whom I will unfortunately never have known. Who will never have come here to explain her suffering."
And the lawyer for Narumi's mother and sister adds, "Narumi wrote to Nicolas on 17 July 2016: ''I feel so proud to have you as my first love, you are certainly the best boy in my life.'' A few months later, he took her life."
10 h 18. - A young woman both "traditional and modern"
Returning to Narumi's personality, Mr Galley recalls the young woman that Narumi was: "Sunny, smiling, full of energy, overflowing with projects, surrounded by friends and a loving family. She was at the same time a summary of Japanese society, its summary and its contrast, of this culture to which she was very attached, with its sense of morality, deference to parents, work, modesty, dignity. But also a young woman full of modernity.
10 h 20. - Me Galley condemns Zepeda's "psychological hold"
As she has done every moment since the beginning of the trial, Narumi's mother clutches the embroidered pouch containing the portrait of her missing daughter to her heart. Taeko Kurosaki sheds new tears.
Her lawyer continues, detailing the "psychological hold" that Zepeda tried to impose on Narumi's youthful mind. "He had the desire to isolate Narumi", she recalls, and this as early as July 2016 while the couple was still in Japan.
The lawyer lists "acts of independence that were intolerable in Nicolas Zepeda's eyes."
The first is obvious: "With this desire to go to France, she is breaking away from the advice of Nicolas Zepeda, who was totally opposed to it." Me Galley repeated the conclusions of the psychologist heard on Friday. "He is obsessively jealous when it comes to Narumi."
The lawyer insists: "Nicolas Zepeda imposes humiliating conditions on Narumi. In an email dated 6 September 2016, he explains the price of being his girlfriend. She has to 'become the best girl' possible: 'You will never cause problems, you will never be angry, you will not be mean, you will not say bad words, you will not negotiate anything'... It is the negation of the other."
The Kurosaki family's lawyer is going full speed ahead. "Narumi suffers" because she knows she is "being watched, spied on all the time."
10 h 25. - The "psychological rumination" of the Chilean, "a precursor to committing an outrage"
The lawyer for the prosecution details the final break-up letter between the two ill-fated lovers. "For the first time, Narumi is able to say what's on her mind. And for a manipulative, jealous, pathological character like Nicolas Zepeda, this is intolerable," Me Galley explains to the jury.
Narumi closes the door. She forbids the South American to come to France to try to get her back. "She has finally escaped from the grip of Nicolas Zepeda," Sylvie Galley says. For the criminal lawyer, the Chilean then entered into a "psychological rumination, a precursor to committing an outrage".
Two months before Narumi's disappearance, barely back from Japan in Chile, "Nicolas Zepeda checked into a behavioural clinic". The French police never had access to his medical file. The lawyer evokes the testimony of two of Nicolas Zepeda's friends at the trial - who did not hesitate to charge the accused - to show the obsession with the Japanese woman beyond their break-up. A break-up that he did not accept, contrary to what he claims today in the trial court.
In October 2016, Nicolas Zepeda booked his ticket to France. He makes a reservation for his car in Dijon... "The countdown for Narumi is unfortunately about to begin," Me Galley murmurs gloomily.
10 h 34. - The "chilling" turning point of 8 September
Me Galley now turns to the video of 8 September where the accused addresses Narumi. "This 8 September will mark a turning point in their relationship", the lawyer recalls. "Nicolas Zepeda will send a video of cold anger: 'Narumi, you have not respected the conditions. I'm giving you an ultimatum'". And the criminal lawyer underlines: "He has his finger pointed. Threatening. Chilling."
Narumi, 21 years old, wrote to her mother: "Mum, I suffer from this relationship, he knows everything about me."
It was then that Zepeda offered to come and join her in France because he realised that she was slipping away from him. "And because she is so emotionally overloaded, she bursts into tears in the laundry room of the university residence," recalls Me Galley. "And she reveals to the man who is going to become her French boyfriend this suffering that is ruining her studies."
Because after having made these acts of independence, the break-up is inevitable.
10 h 35. - The sinister silhouette of this prowler...
We advance to December 1st, at 0:41. Narumi is sleeping in her room. Me Galley focuses on the famous video surveillance images, viewed by the court, "contested by the defence and I understand why, so incriminating are they...".
This is the sequence of the prowler, who seems to be carrying out sinister scouting behind the building where the Japanese woman lives. "He will come back once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times during the night, while Narumi is sleeping. Zepeda denies being that figure. "But the phone betrays him, the chip in his car betrays him, we are absolutely sure of that", Me Galley snaps, recalling two testimonies that attest to the Chilean's attire.
"We were watching a moment where Narumi is still alive, even though we can't see her on the image. We wanted to stop time, to go back, to say to her 'Narumi, if you knew what was happening outside'... We wanted to warn her, to tell her that she was in great danger, that yes, it was Nicolas Zepeda who was under her windows, who was already watching her even though he had just arrived," the lawyer for the civil party says, while on her right, Taeko and Kurumi Kurosaki do not hide their emotion. The mother covers her face. Her youngest daughter has put a hand around her shoulder. Little comfort.
10 h 40. - The "relentless mechanism" is put in place
Me Galley continues her countdown to the disappearance of the Japanese student. "Thursday 1 December: she has a busy day, she has three days to live. Climbing class, she phones her mother and meets up with her boyfriend Arthur del Piccolo. The one who doesn't impose anything on her, who doesn't control her, who makes her blossom... This evening, once again, Zepeda resumes his sordid merry-go-round with three return trips under her windows. She is still alive. On Friday 2 December, Narumi has only two days to live...".
A few explanations later, Mr Galley emphasised: "In this morbid but unfortunately real countdown, we sometimes have the impression that she could have been saved. But I believe that a relentless mechanism had already been put in place...".
10 h 45. - A "last day as a free and living woman
"On 4 December, Narumi is living her last day as a free and living woman," Sylvie Galley explains. She doesn't know it yet, but the student is about to cross paths with Nicolas Zepeda as she leaves her dance class and steals a "little kiss" from her boyfriend Arthur del Piccolo on campus.
The lawyer does not believe for a moment, not for a second, in the version supported by the accused on the manner of their reunion. According to Zepeda, it was Narumi who approached him, seeing him in his car parked in the car park. "For reasons of her own, Narumi will agree to follow Nicolas Zepeda. I think she was particularly shocked to see him again, perhaps in a state of shock. He will reassure her, convince her to leave with him, for a fateful evening..." Me Galley says.
10 h 54. - The "fateful evening
"We know little about the dinner in Ornans, but we have some ideas", Me Galley believes.
For her, "Narumi is not at all a young woman who finds herself under the spell, she does not fall under Zepeda's spell again. Instead, there is a long dinner. This is her last meal, the last picture we have of Narumi alive.
Citing testimonies that describe her eating "slowly, very slowly, these meals that are difficult to digest, where you turn your cutlery over and over again on your plate," the lawyer notes that "she is with Nicolas Zepeda, but when at 9:09 pm her boyfriend asks her, 'Are you all right, darling?', she replies, 'Yes, and you?
10 h 55. - Me Galley revives the cries of terror... and this " rattle " of agony
Me Sylvie Galley continues to take the court by the hand, this December 4, until the campus in Besançon, on the return from the restaurant. Narumi and Nicolas Zepeda return "apart, without any gesture of affection" to the university residence.
"Nicolas Zepeda can lie, we will never get Narumi's version. He is exploiting this," the lawyer laments. The accused now asserts that the student had offered to take a shower. Me Galley exposes Zepeda to his contradictions, with a different first version. "He is free to make Narumi say whatever she wants. We are not far from a lie in this case."
The lawyer painfully relives the famous cries of "terror, fright, suffering" heard in Narumi's building at around 3:20 am. Ms Galley dwells on these "appalling" testimonies and, she continues, "we all perceived the emotion in the people who were talking about it five years later. Rachel Hope was "crying about it," recalls Me Galley. Another witness spoke of "a long rattle, that of agony. It is the ultimate suffering of a person dying."
The air is getting thicker in the courtroom. "It's those few minutes that make it all change and that also change the life of her mother, because Narumi has just lost her life, either dead immediately or in agony," the lawyer says.
11 h. - Unanswered questions
"What was she thinking before she died? Who was she thinking about?" Me Galley now asks. "Did it take her a long time to die? Judging by the screams, yes, certainly. Did she suffer, certainly also, unfortunately..."
A moment. Then: "Narumi's death will remain in the secret of Nicolas Zepeda's soul. And these moments will remain forever marked in the heart of a mother, with all these questions now unanswered...".
Words that the mother and sister listen to, huddled together. The mother, like a pietà, weeping and still caressing the photo of her missing daughter, suffocating her pain and sobs in her handkerchief.
11 h 05. - The Machiavellian mechanisms of a body that one wants to make disappear
Me Galley continues her chilling story. Narumi is dead. But the horror continues.
The lawyer details the "Machiavellian mechanisms" that were then implemented to conceal the crime. "There is a world of difference between killing the other person and wanting to get rid of the body. There is a murderer on the one hand, and someone who has a terrifying dimension on the other. Someone who has no respect for the body of the one he loved.
Referring to the conclusions of the psychologists on the accused's "need for control", the lawyer for Narumi's relatives continued her demonstration: "To take control of someone is to take their life. By taking Narumi's life, Nicolas Zepeda regained a sense of his own. He finally took control. And to take control is also to reason in a chilling way."
"To serve his interests is not only to kill Narumi, it is to deny her existence. To explain the disappearance of the body, he will try to make her a suicide victim. It is obscene to claim that this woman so full of life would have wanted to commit suicide," Me Galley continues, rejecting the theory of "evaporated persons", those people who in Japan disappear voluntarily.
11 h 10. - 5 December 2016: "If we could have opened the bedroom door...".
Me Galley pauses on this dizzying scene of 5 December 2016. Narumi's French boyfriend, Arthur del Piccolo, is standing in front of his sweetheart's room, knocking on her door, between hope and anxiety... Behind them, in the silence, Narumi and Nicolas are there.
The lawyer for the prosecution begins to dream aloud... "If we had been able to open the door, we wouldn't have saved Narumi. She was already dead. But we wouldn't be here today. Yes, I know, if only... Nicolas Zepeda would have been discovered in the presence of Narumi's corpse. He could not have been in the denial in which he is locked today, and above all a grieving family could have brought Narumi's body back to Japan."
Galley then attributed "a stroke of genius" to Zepeda, the author of the message received by Arthur del Piccolo, according to the lawyer. The Japanese woman's boyfriend believes these words attributed to Narumi, who tells him that she has just met another boy, that she is in town with him... Del Piccolo turns away. Does not open that door. The story has just taken a completely different turn.
11 h 15. - The theory of mystery
"We are told that the disappearance of Narumi Kurosaki is a mystery, and that this mystery should allow Nicolas Zepeda to be acquitted," Me Galley notes. "But because Nicolas Zepeda is fond of definitions, I looked up the definition of 'mystery' in the dictionary. There is the definition of 'what is of the order of the supernatural': this is the only theory that we did not have the indecency to develop. On the other hand: 'Precautions taken to hide something', that fits!
The lawyer went on to say: "Yes, the mystery comes from the lies told by Nicolas Zepeda, who finally killed Narumi and disposed of her body using Machiavellian stratagems. He who, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, could have been caught in the act, a moment that we have been replaying."
11 h 20. - Zepeda "condemned Narumi's soul to wander in the dark"
The lawyer insists, without concession, on the spirit that according to her animated Nicolas Zepeda at the time of the disappearance of the student's body.
Me Galley wonders if the Chilean "deposited her like a piece of rubbish in a forest" or "threw her into the cold waters of the Doubs (...) Zepeda exceeded all the limits of the intolerable."
While Narumi's mother, still in tears, caresses her daughter's portrait, the criminal lawyer continues: "The body is gone forever. We have touched the sacred, but also the funeral beliefs. Nicolas Zepeda has also condemned Narumi's soul to wander in the dark, according to Japanese beliefs."
Sylvie Galley dwells on these modalities: "None of the funeral rites were respected. The deceased must be helped to cross the river in death, to look after their family, they must be cremated. Unless Nicolas Zepeda gave special meaning to the matches and the five litres of flammable products he bought, we will never know..."
11 h 25. - Condemnation and damnation
"Once freed from Narumi's body, Nicolas Zepeda organised his return to Chile with an unbearable lightness," Me Galley observes, recalling the journey of the Chilean "who would have remained a ghost in France if Narumi had not taken this last photo of his last meal where we see him".
"But he is so confident that, back in Chile, he thinks he is saved," she continues. "He knows that Chile does not extradite its nationals. He feels saved because, without a body, there is no conviction. But if he had been tried in Japan, he would have been sentenced to death, and executed by hanging."
Me Galley added: "We are in France and, if he is telling the truth, he is dreaming of Narumi. Let's hope that one day his conscience will catch up with him. But for now, Narumi's mother and sister are leaving with their distress, their tears and their questions.
11 h 30. - A father's love is higher than the mountain, a mother's love deeper than the ocean
The lawyer for Narumi's family has just quoted Simone de Beauvoir who said that "in every tear lingers a hope". But, speaking of Narumi's relatives, she notes that "in their tears, this hope has unfortunately completely disappeared.
Galley nevertheless wants to "believe that somewhere during this hearing, something happened. Perhaps the breath of Narumi's spirit washed over this hearing when dozens of little origami started to bloom here, in the courtroom. Origami in the shape of a bird, a crane, that Kurumi, Narumi's sister, kept folding to offer them to the kind hands that showed their support.
And the prosecutor concluded her hour and a half argument by explaining: "These origami have a very strong spiritual connotation. These little cranes are very much used in funeral rites and there is a belief that whoever folds a thousand cranes will have their wish granted. So Kurumi continues to fold these little cranes. And she will continue to be inspired by the Japanese proverb: 'A father's love is higher than the mountain, and a mother's love is deeper than the ocean.'
Origami in the shape of a bird, a crane, that Kurumi, Narumi's sister, kept folding to offer them to the kind hands that showed their support in the courtroom.
The hearing is suspended and is expected to resume at noon.
En direct. Procès Narumi : Zepeda « a condamné l'âme de Narumi à errer dans l'obscurité », revivez les plaidoiries des parties civiles
9 h 45. - In the absence of a confession, the stakes are high
The stakes on this 10th day are high. The closing arguments are an opportunity for each side to convince the jury. The emphasis is on eloquence, clever phrases and public speaking in the strict sense of the term. Common objective: to convince, convince and convince!
The session is highly anticipated. In the absence of a confession, the positions of the defence and the prosecution are radically opposed and very conflicting. Everything remains possible.
Unusually - but in this trial everything will be until the end - it is planned that after the defence pleadings at the end of the day, the jury will not leave to deliberate. The three judges and the six jurors will go home tonight for a night of reflection, before meeting again tomorrow morning to deliberate in closed session on the fate of Nicolas Zepeda.
10 h 05. - Narumi's family's lawyer begins with a quote
The hearing resumes: the lawyer for Narumi's relatives, Sylvie Galley, steps into the centre of the courtroom.
The criminal lawyer rekindles in the minds of the jurors one of the first powerful images of this trial, that of "an accused who came with his hand over his heart to tell you of his innocence. On the civil party side, a mother and a sister were huddled together, completely destroyed...
Me Galley launches a first quote, borrowed from a writer: "Without a trial, you have to make a choice between tears, you can't cry for the murderer and for the civil parties at the same time."
The lawyer recalls the testimony of Taeko Kurosaki last Thursday, the mother who has been deprived of all happiness since Narumi's disappearance, "who came with great devotion to pay tribute to her daughter and explain from the depths of her soul how intense her pain was". This brought the trial into "a dimension of dignity, of modesty".
"It is the modest tears of the civil parties that you should privilege in considering as guilty the one who stands in the dock," the lawyer for the Kurosaki family encourages, while castigating in her calm voice "the lies, denials, contradictions developed by Nicolas Zepeda".
Sitting in his box, head slightly bent, Nicolas Zepeda listens attentively to the opening of Me Galley's plea.
10 h 15. - "The worst of the absences"
"The defence will fervently plead the innocence of Nicolas Zepeda who is also a son, a brother," Me Galley points out, "but it will be superior to the civil parties that I represent, that they plead life. Whereas I am condemned to plead for the worst kind of absence: the death of a young woman whom I will unfortunately never have known. Who will never have come here to explain her suffering."
And the lawyer for Narumi's mother and sister adds, "Narumi wrote to Nicolas on 17 July 2016: ''I feel so proud to have you as my first love, you are certainly the best boy in my life.'' A few months later, he took her life."
10 h 18. - A young woman both "traditional and modern"
Returning to Narumi's personality, Mr Galley recalls the young woman that Narumi was: "Sunny, smiling, full of energy, overflowing with projects, surrounded by friends and a loving family. She was at the same time a summary of Japanese society, its summary and its contrast, of this culture to which she was very attached, with its sense of morality, deference to parents, work, modesty, dignity. But also a young woman full of modernity.
10 h 20. - Me Galley condemns Zepeda's "psychological hold"
As she has done every moment since the beginning of the trial, Narumi's mother clutches the embroidered pouch containing the portrait of her missing daughter to her heart. Taeko Kurosaki sheds new tears.
Her lawyer continues, detailing the "psychological hold" that Zepeda tried to impose on Narumi's youthful mind. "He had the desire to isolate Narumi", she recalls, and this as early as July 2016 while the couple was still in Japan.
The lawyer lists "acts of independence that were intolerable in Nicolas Zepeda's eyes."
The first is obvious: "With this desire to go to France, she is breaking away from the advice of Nicolas Zepeda, who was totally opposed to it." Me Galley repeated the conclusions of the psychologist heard on Friday. "He is obsessively jealous when it comes to Narumi."
The lawyer insists: "Nicolas Zepeda imposes humiliating conditions on Narumi. In an email dated 6 September 2016, he explains the price of being his girlfriend. She has to 'become the best girl' possible: 'You will never cause problems, you will never be angry, you will not be mean, you will not say bad words, you will not negotiate anything'... It is the negation of the other."
The Kurosaki family's lawyer is going full speed ahead. "Narumi suffers" because she knows she is "being watched, spied on all the time."
10 h 25. - The "psychological rumination" of the Chilean, "a precursor to committing an outrage"
The lawyer for the prosecution details the final break-up letter between the two ill-fated lovers. "For the first time, Narumi is able to say what's on her mind. And for a manipulative, jealous, pathological character like Nicolas Zepeda, this is intolerable," Me Galley explains to the jury.
Narumi closes the door. She forbids the South American to come to France to try to get her back. "She has finally escaped from the grip of Nicolas Zepeda," Sylvie Galley says. For the criminal lawyer, the Chilean then entered into a "psychological rumination, a precursor to committing an outrage".
Two months before Narumi's disappearance, barely back from Japan in Chile, "Nicolas Zepeda checked into a behavioural clinic". The French police never had access to his medical file. The lawyer evokes the testimony of two of Nicolas Zepeda's friends at the trial - who did not hesitate to charge the accused - to show the obsession with the Japanese woman beyond their break-up. A break-up that he did not accept, contrary to what he claims today in the trial court.
In October 2016, Nicolas Zepeda booked his ticket to France. He makes a reservation for his car in Dijon... "The countdown for Narumi is unfortunately about to begin," Me Galley murmurs gloomily.
10 h 34. - The "chilling" turning point of 8 September
Me Galley now turns to the video of 8 September where the accused addresses Narumi. "This 8 September will mark a turning point in their relationship", the lawyer recalls. "Nicolas Zepeda will send a video of cold anger: 'Narumi, you have not respected the conditions. I'm giving you an ultimatum'". And the criminal lawyer underlines: "He has his finger pointed. Threatening. Chilling."
Narumi, 21 years old, wrote to her mother: "Mum, I suffer from this relationship, he knows everything about me."
It was then that Zepeda offered to come and join her in France because he realised that she was slipping away from him. "And because she is so emotionally overloaded, she bursts into tears in the laundry room of the university residence," recalls Me Galley. "And she reveals to the man who is going to become her French boyfriend this suffering that is ruining her studies."
Because after having made these acts of independence, the break-up is inevitable.
10 h 35. - The sinister silhouette of this prowler...
We advance to December 1st, at 0:41. Narumi is sleeping in her room. Me Galley focuses on the famous video surveillance images, viewed by the court, "contested by the defence and I understand why, so incriminating are they...".
This is the sequence of the prowler, who seems to be carrying out sinister scouting behind the building where the Japanese woman lives. "He will come back once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times during the night, while Narumi is sleeping. Zepeda denies being that figure. "But the phone betrays him, the chip in his car betrays him, we are absolutely sure of that", Me Galley snaps, recalling two testimonies that attest to the Chilean's attire.
"We were watching a moment where Narumi is still alive, even though we can't see her on the image. We wanted to stop time, to go back, to say to her 'Narumi, if you knew what was happening outside'... We wanted to warn her, to tell her that she was in great danger, that yes, it was Nicolas Zepeda who was under her windows, who was already watching her even though he had just arrived," the lawyer for the civil party says, while on her right, Taeko and Kurumi Kurosaki do not hide their emotion. The mother covers her face. Her youngest daughter has put a hand around her shoulder. Little comfort.
10 h 40. - The "relentless mechanism" is put in place
Me Galley continues her countdown to the disappearance of the Japanese student. "Thursday 1 December: she has a busy day, she has three days to live. Climbing class, she phones her mother and meets up with her boyfriend Arthur del Piccolo. The one who doesn't impose anything on her, who doesn't control her, who makes her blossom... This evening, once again, Zepeda resumes his sordid merry-go-round with three return trips under her windows. She is still alive. On Friday 2 December, Narumi has only two days to live...".
A few explanations later, Mr Galley emphasised: "In this morbid but unfortunately real countdown, we sometimes have the impression that she could have been saved. But I believe that a relentless mechanism had already been put in place...".
10 h 45. - A "last day as a free and living woman
"On 4 December, Narumi is living her last day as a free and living woman," Sylvie Galley explains. She doesn't know it yet, but the student is about to cross paths with Nicolas Zepeda as she leaves her dance class and steals a "little kiss" from her boyfriend Arthur del Piccolo on campus.
The lawyer does not believe for a moment, not for a second, in the version supported by the accused on the manner of their reunion. According to Zepeda, it was Narumi who approached him, seeing him in his car parked in the car park. "For reasons of her own, Narumi will agree to follow Nicolas Zepeda. I think she was particularly shocked to see him again, perhaps in a state of shock. He will reassure her, convince her to leave with him, for a fateful evening..." Me Galley says.
10 h 54. - The "fateful evening
"We know little about the dinner in Ornans, but we have some ideas", Me Galley believes.
For her, "Narumi is not at all a young woman who finds herself under the spell, she does not fall under Zepeda's spell again. Instead, there is a long dinner. This is her last meal, the last picture we have of Narumi alive.
Citing testimonies that describe her eating "slowly, very slowly, these meals that are difficult to digest, where you turn your cutlery over and over again on your plate," the lawyer notes that "she is with Nicolas Zepeda, but when at 9:09 pm her boyfriend asks her, 'Are you all right, darling?', she replies, 'Yes, and you?
10 h 55. - Me Galley revives the cries of terror... and this " rattle " of agony
Me Sylvie Galley continues to take the court by the hand, this December 4, until the campus in Besançon, on the return from the restaurant. Narumi and Nicolas Zepeda return "apart, without any gesture of affection" to the university residence.
"Nicolas Zepeda can lie, we will never get Narumi's version. He is exploiting this," the lawyer laments. The accused now asserts that the student had offered to take a shower. Me Galley exposes Zepeda to his contradictions, with a different first version. "He is free to make Narumi say whatever she wants. We are not far from a lie in this case."
The lawyer painfully relives the famous cries of "terror, fright, suffering" heard in Narumi's building at around 3:20 am. Ms Galley dwells on these "appalling" testimonies and, she continues, "we all perceived the emotion in the people who were talking about it five years later. Rachel Hope was "crying about it," recalls Me Galley. Another witness spoke of "a long rattle, that of agony. It is the ultimate suffering of a person dying."
The air is getting thicker in the courtroom. "It's those few minutes that make it all change and that also change the life of her mother, because Narumi has just lost her life, either dead immediately or in agony," the lawyer says.
11 h. - Unanswered questions
"What was she thinking before she died? Who was she thinking about?" Me Galley now asks. "Did it take her a long time to die? Judging by the screams, yes, certainly. Did she suffer, certainly also, unfortunately..."
A moment. Then: "Narumi's death will remain in the secret of Nicolas Zepeda's soul. And these moments will remain forever marked in the heart of a mother, with all these questions now unanswered...".
Words that the mother and sister listen to, huddled together. The mother, like a pietà, weeping and still caressing the photo of her missing daughter, suffocating her pain and sobs in her handkerchief.
11 h 05. - The Machiavellian mechanisms of a body that one wants to make disappear
Me Galley continues her chilling story. Narumi is dead. But the horror continues.
The lawyer details the "Machiavellian mechanisms" that were then implemented to conceal the crime. "There is a world of difference between killing the other person and wanting to get rid of the body. There is a murderer on the one hand, and someone who has a terrifying dimension on the other. Someone who has no respect for the body of the one he loved.
Referring to the conclusions of the psychologists on the accused's "need for control", the lawyer for Narumi's relatives continued her demonstration: "To take control of someone is to take their life. By taking Narumi's life, Nicolas Zepeda regained a sense of his own. He finally took control. And to take control is also to reason in a chilling way."
"To serve his interests is not only to kill Narumi, it is to deny her existence. To explain the disappearance of the body, he will try to make her a suicide victim. It is obscene to claim that this woman so full of life would have wanted to commit suicide," Me Galley continues, rejecting the theory of "evaporated persons", those people who in Japan disappear voluntarily.
11 h 10. - 5 December 2016: "If we could have opened the bedroom door...".
Me Galley pauses on this dizzying scene of 5 December 2016. Narumi's French boyfriend, Arthur del Piccolo, is standing in front of his sweetheart's room, knocking on her door, between hope and anxiety... Behind them, in the silence, Narumi and Nicolas are there.
The lawyer for the prosecution begins to dream aloud... "If we had been able to open the door, we wouldn't have saved Narumi. She was already dead. But we wouldn't be here today. Yes, I know, if only... Nicolas Zepeda would have been discovered in the presence of Narumi's corpse. He could not have been in the denial in which he is locked today, and above all a grieving family could have brought Narumi's body back to Japan."
Galley then attributed "a stroke of genius" to Zepeda, the author of the message received by Arthur del Piccolo, according to the lawyer. The Japanese woman's boyfriend believes these words attributed to Narumi, who tells him that she has just met another boy, that she is in town with him... Del Piccolo turns away. Does not open that door. The story has just taken a completely different turn.
11 h 15. - The theory of mystery
"We are told that the disappearance of Narumi Kurosaki is a mystery, and that this mystery should allow Nicolas Zepeda to be acquitted," Me Galley notes. "But because Nicolas Zepeda is fond of definitions, I looked up the definition of 'mystery' in the dictionary. There is the definition of 'what is of the order of the supernatural': this is the only theory that we did not have the indecency to develop. On the other hand: 'Precautions taken to hide something', that fits!
The lawyer went on to say: "Yes, the mystery comes from the lies told by Nicolas Zepeda, who finally killed Narumi and disposed of her body using Machiavellian stratagems. He who, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, could have been caught in the act, a moment that we have been replaying."
11 h 20. - Zepeda "condemned Narumi's soul to wander in the dark"
The lawyer insists, without concession, on the spirit that according to her animated Nicolas Zepeda at the time of the disappearance of the student's body.
Me Galley wonders if the Chilean "deposited her like a piece of rubbish in a forest" or "threw her into the cold waters of the Doubs (...) Zepeda exceeded all the limits of the intolerable."
While Narumi's mother, still in tears, caresses her daughter's portrait, the criminal lawyer continues: "The body is gone forever. We have touched the sacred, but also the funeral beliefs. Nicolas Zepeda has also condemned Narumi's soul to wander in the dark, according to Japanese beliefs."
Sylvie Galley dwells on these modalities: "None of the funeral rites were respected. The deceased must be helped to cross the river in death, to look after their family, they must be cremated. Unless Nicolas Zepeda gave special meaning to the matches and the five litres of flammable products he bought, we will never know..."
11 h 25. - Condemnation and damnation
"Once freed from Narumi's body, Nicolas Zepeda organised his return to Chile with an unbearable lightness," Me Galley observes, recalling the journey of the Chilean "who would have remained a ghost in France if Narumi had not taken this last photo of his last meal where we see him".
"But he is so confident that, back in Chile, he thinks he is saved," she continues. "He knows that Chile does not extradite its nationals. He feels saved because, without a body, there is no conviction. But if he had been tried in Japan, he would have been sentenced to death, and executed by hanging."
Me Galley added: "We are in France and, if he is telling the truth, he is dreaming of Narumi. Let's hope that one day his conscience will catch up with him. But for now, Narumi's mother and sister are leaving with their distress, their tears and their questions.
11 h 30. - A father's love is higher than the mountain, a mother's love deeper than the ocean
The lawyer for Narumi's family has just quoted Simone de Beauvoir who said that "in every tear lingers a hope". But, speaking of Narumi's relatives, she notes that "in their tears, this hope has unfortunately completely disappeared.
Galley nevertheless wants to "believe that somewhere during this hearing, something happened. Perhaps the breath of Narumi's spirit washed over this hearing when dozens of little origami started to bloom here, in the courtroom. Origami in the shape of a bird, a crane, that Kurumi, Narumi's sister, kept folding to offer them to the kind hands that showed their support.
And the prosecutor concluded her hour and a half argument by explaining: "These origami have a very strong spiritual connotation. These little cranes are very much used in funeral rites and there is a belief that whoever folds a thousand cranes will have their wish granted. So Kurumi continues to fold these little cranes. And she will continue to be inspired by the Japanese proverb: 'A father's love is higher than the mountain, and a mother's love is deeper than the ocean.'
Origami in the shape of a bird, a crane, that Kurumi, Narumi's sister, kept folding to offer them to the kind hands that showed their support in the courtroom.
The hearing is suspended and is expected to resume at noon.
