February 01, 2021: The Assize Court of Reims welcomes the trial of Loic Vantal and Caroline Létoile, tried for the death of little Tony, in 2016. -
V. VANTIGHEM
The Marne Assize Court pronounced on Friday evening weaker sentences than those required against Loïc Vantal and Caroline Létoile.
During this grueling hearing, Loïc Vantal had admitted having struck violent blows on little Tony, 3 years old.
The parties to the trial have ten days to appeal the verdict.
An option that the Reims prosecutor could choose.
At the Assize Court of Marne, in Reims,
It was almost 11:30 p.m. on Friday evening when time stood still in the Marne Assize Court.
At the end of five days of a grueling trial, the president, Hélène Langlois, handed down weaker sentences than those required against Loïc Vantal and Caroline Létoile, tried for the atrocious death of little Tony, 3, in November 2016 in Reims.
While the motivations of the court are not yet known,
20 Minutes
tries to decipher this verdict ...
Why is Loïc Vantal sentenced to 20 years in prison?
Just before the verdict, in the Salle des pas perdus of the Reims court, David Scribe, his lawyer, confided that Loïc Vantal obviously expected "to take 30 years in prison" and did not think of appealing the decision.
“I had unacceptable behavior.
I deserve to be condemned ”, he had indicated at the bar when releasing his last words.
As if everything was already folded ... But no.
An hour later, the court finally sentenced him to 20 years' imprisonment with a two-thirds security period and an obligation of care.
"I think the jurors took into account the humanity of my client," responded David Scribe.
At the bar, Friday afternoon, he had tried to convince the jurors that Loïc Vantal, 28 years old today, had started to "work" on himself and had "understood" his act.
In fact, aggressive and vindictive a year ago during a first trial postponed in January 2020 due to the lawyers' strike, Loïc Vantal spent this week of hearing without making the slightest scandal as if something had happened in him. exchange.
The court no doubt wanted to give him a reason to think about all this.
“It will take time.
Years undoubtedly, continued, his lawyer.
Reims, December 1, 2016. Anonymous people placed candles in memory of little Tony, 3, who died under the blows of his stepfather.
- François Nascimbeni / AFP
Caroline Létoile going back to prison?
When the verdict was announced, she obviously cried.
Like every day since Monday.
Like every hour, even.
But Caroline Létoile, the mother of little Tony, did not really understand.
“She turned to us and asked if she should take her bag to go into detention…”, says Pauline Coyac, one of her two lawyers.
But no.
Tried only for the offenses of "non-assistance to a person in danger" and "non-denunciation of a crime", Tony's mother finally receives a four-year prison sentence, one of which is suspended.
So below the requisitions of the prosecutor who had called for the maximum penalty of five years in prison in the morning.
The young woman, 19 years old at the time of the facts, served only four months of pre-trial detention.
“His sentence is therefore not fully adaptable.
And logically, she should return to detention perhaps for a year, regrets Pauline Coyac.
It is incomprehensible because our client is inserted.
She has a CDI.
A roof… "
In the coming weeks, the young woman should therefore meet with a sentencing judge who will determine what will happen next for her.
In the meantime, she left the courthouse and returned to her mother's house, on foot, a forty-minute walk away with her many brothers and sisters who came to support her during the verdict when they had "dried up" all of them. debates since Monday.
Will there be an appeal trial?
The prosecution and the accused have ten days to appeal the verdict which was handed down on Friday evening.
And it is very likely.
If Loïc Vantal should be satisfied with a conviction weaker than expected, Caroline Létoile's lawyers indicated, at the end of the verdict, that they "were still considering" the question.
They pleaded for the release of their client.
They didn't get it.
The decision is objectively more lenient than expected for Caroline Létoile.
But she will have to return to detention.
"So we have to think about all this", continued Friday evening Pauline Coyac.
The Reims prosecutor, Matthieu Bourrette, could help him in his reflection.
Very reassembled on this file for four years, he made the Tony affair an almost personal case.
Very good during requisitions, he logically demanded the maximum penalties but was not followed by the court.
He might therefore want to appeal and demand a new trial, in the hope of obtaining harsher sentences.
How did Tony's dad react to all of this?
Present during the five days of the hearing, Anthony Alves, Tony's father, went through the trial with great dignity.
He only left the courtroom once: when Loïc Vantal began to tell "the worst day" when he hit his son.
" Whore !
», He then released distinctly before leaving.
On Friday night, he listened to the verdict soberly, then left the court.
“He expected more severe sentences, testified Olivier Chalot, one of his two lawyers.
He's a little bit bitter.
It's his feeling and it's a bit normal… ”
Relive the unfolding of this trial on our journalist's Twitter account: @vvantighem
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