Since Monday, Olivier Cappelaere was tried before the Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes, in Nice.
He was sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment with a 22-year security period for the poisoning of a nonagenarian.
In 2020, he had already been sentenced to 25 years in prison for having attempted to poison the owner of one of his apartments purchased for life.
Already sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2020 for having attempted to poison the owner of one of his apartments purchased as a life annuity, Olivier Cappelaere was sentenced by the Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes on Friday, where he had been tried since Monday, to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years for the poisoning of a nonagenarian.
On his death, he had become his universal legatee and had inherited 600,000 euros, including life insurance.
Jacqueline Imbert, 92, a widow from Cannet, had become "his godmother of the heart", as the 52-year-old accused, currently in detention, explained during his trial before the Assize Court in Nice.
But it was he who was found guilty of poisoning her in 2014, causing her death with atropine, a powerful poison contained in certain eye drops.
"Jacqueline Imbert died for nothing, only for the greed and venality of the one who killed her," insisted the Advocate General, Christophe Raffin, before demanding life imprisonment with a security sentence of 22 years against the former entrepreneur, who was experiencing financial difficulties.
Act "with premeditation"
"He planned everything, the premeditation for me is there, there is no doubt", pleaded Friday morning Me Ariane Kabsch, lawyer for the civil parties, referring to the victim, a woman who "had character" and “no suicidal ideation”.
On the other side, Me Corinne Dreyfus Schmidt, Mr. Cappelaere's lawyer, for her part, called for avoiding any "amalgam" between the two cases, calling on the jurors to "resist the comfort of the pre-established" in their pleadings. .
Denouncing a "failing investigation, marked by a total absence of investigation", and a "testing trial, held in an electric atmosphere", she criticized the prosecution for having wanted "to distort at all costs" the agreement between Mr. Cappelaere and Jacqueline who, according to her, “was happy with this relationship”.
In 2020, Olivier Cappelaere had already been sentenced to 25 years in prison, on appeal, for an attempted poisoning of another pensioner, after being sentenced to 20 years at first instance, in 2019. She had drunk alcohol. mineral water in which the accused admitted having diluted his dog's eye drops.
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