Jonathann Daval at his trial -

BENOIT PEYRUCQ / AFP

"Yes": after having multiplied the versions and the lies during the investigation, Jonathann Daval maintained this Monday being the sole author of the murder in 2017 of his wife Alexia, on the first day of his trial before the assizes of the Upper- Saone.

Invited at the end of the morning by the president of the Assize Court Matthieu Husson to say whether, three years after the events, he still maintained his statements, namely that he was "the only one involved in the death of (his) wife ", This 36-year-old computer scientist, with red eyes and on the verge of tears, soberly answered" yes ".

Throwing a few glances at his family and those close to Alexia, the thirty-something, tried for "murder on spouse" and who faces life imprisonment, arrived shortly after 9 am in the box of the accused.

The verdict is due on Friday.

“You shouldn't be judged differently because this case has had a special impact.

I owe you impartiality, ”assured President Husson.

The affair, which arose in the fall of 2017, made a deep impression as the scale of violence against women came to light with the #MeToo wave.

On October 30, the partially charred body of Alexia Daval, a 29-year-old bank employee, was found hidden under branches, in a wood located a few kilometers from the Daval home in Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône ).

Different versions over the months

It was her husband, Jonathann, who had reported two days earlier the disappearance of his wife while jogging.

The following days, the face bathed in tears of the thirty-something appeared in the media.

But in January 2018, the grieving widower, placed in police custody, cracked and confessed to the murder of his wife, which he said occurred during a violent argument.

Two years of investigation will follow during which Jonathann will deliver several versions, retracting, then accusing his brother-in-law, before acknowledging the murder again during a shocking hearing before the investigating judge.

In June 2019, he finally confessed during the reconstitution to have set Alexia's remains on fire.

A premeditated act?

Alexia's family expects from this trial "a fair sentence, that is to say a sentence that is understood by them, which will take into account their sentence but also the recurring lies of Jonathann Daval throughout these last three years ”, underlined Me Portejoie Monday morning in an interview with BFMTV.

But in the meantime, the lawyer expects the debates that they remove the "many gray areas of this file", evoking "the possible premeditation" but also a "possible complicity", ruled out by the investigation and by the accused himself as he reaffirmed at the hearing.

"We can't say anything more"

On the evening of the murder, Jonathann said he refused to have sex with his wife who, in return, would have been violent, accusing her of "not being a man".

Alexia, "violent in word and deed", "humiliated her", supported during the investigation the accused, who says to have "strangled" and "hit her so that she is silent", but without want to kill her.

This image of a domineering Alexia revolts the parents of the victim.

"I don't want this to be Alexia's trial, we can't stand it," the mother warned.

The stake is "to manage to understand what really happened, in a deleterious climate where we can no longer say anything", underlined for his part one of Jonathann's lawyers, Me Randall Schwerdorffer , promising during this trial "a moment of truth".

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