He claimed his innocence throughout the trial: Mamadou Diallo, accused of the bloody murder of a postwoman in 2008 in Montreal-la-Cluse, was acquitted on Monday by the Assize Court of Ain "for the benefit of the doubt ".
A little earlier in the day, the Advocate General Eric Mazaud had however demanded a 30-year prison sentence against the 32-year-old accused, confused by his DNA nearly ten years after the facts, while the investigation remained fixed on the former actor Gérald Thomassin.
But after nearly five hours of deliberation, he was acquitted of the murder charge.
The former paramedic, on the other hand, was sentenced to two years in prison – a sentence covered by his pre-trial detention – for the theft of a wad of banknotes which he admits having committed when he went to the scene of the crime. , before, according to him, fleeing after discovering the body of the victim.
When the verdict was announced, Mamadou Diallo breathed a sigh of relief, before kissing the hands of his lawyer, Me Sylvie Noachovitch.
She then greeted journalists "a great victory for justice" and paid tribute to the "courage" of the jurors.
To the address of the civil parties, heads lowered at the statement of the verdict, the president of the assize court soberly declared: "It's the end of a judicial episode, it's the end of the first instance ".
28 stab wounds
The body of Catherine Burgod, 41, was discovered on December 19, 2008 at 9:05 a.m. in the back room of the small post office in Montreal-la-Cluse, bathed in a pool of blood.
Twenty-eight stab wounds were recorded on the body of this mother of two children, 5 months pregnant.
The villainous track was quickly followed by the investigators, a sum estimated at 2,490 euros having been stolen.
But the murder weapon remained untraceable and no convincing testimony, in particular for the crucial 29 minutes separating the last SMS from the victim and the discovery of his body, made it possible to advance the investigation.
This was first oriented on the track of Gérald Thomassin, ex-hope of French cinema who had become marginal, who then lived opposite this post and whose behavior after the murder had intrigued the investigators.
He disappeared in 2019, before benefiting from a dismissal.
During the six days of debates, the defense tried to instill doubt again around the trail leading to Jacques Doillon's former "Little criminal".
"I am convinced that he is the culprit", launched Monday at the beginning of the pleading Me Noachovitch.
For the Advocate General, this strategy was a “scarecrow”.
“I do not believe in the thesis of the spectator profiteer (…) and if you are not a spectator, it is because you are an actor on the scene”, he declared in his indictment against the accused, whose "lies ad absurdum" he pointed out.
"Trauma"
In 2017, the case rebounded when a match was established between the DNA taken from a coin mechanism and a bag found near the body of Catherine Burgod and that of Mamadou Diallo.
At the time of the events, the latter was doing an internship near Montreal-la-Cluse.
"I panicked, I didn't think, on the way out I took a wad of cash, I ran out," said the man who was a 19-year-old high school student at the time.
Why did you vary in your statements during the investigation?
Because of the “trauma”, he answers, ensuring to be “sincere”.
"From the start, I declare that I am innocent, I have nothing to do with the death of this poor woman", he assured several times before the Assize Court of Bourg-en-Bresse.
For the lawyer for the civil parties, Me Séverine Debourg, these fluctuating statements constitute "a dodge".
Relatives of Catherine Burgod "wanted explanations on Mr. Diallo's version and they did not have any", she regretted.
Justice
Murder