The Montpellier Court of Appeal must decide on the criminal irresponsibility of Jordan Garnier, who killed his partner with 80 stab wounds and his neighbor with 7 blades in January 2022 in Roujan (Hérault). Experts are divided on his mental illness and the role of cannabis in his actions. The judgment will be delivered on February 20.
“Today I discover the face of the one who stole my daughter's life with great violence. It is impossible to grieve, but I will remain a mother for life, even if you killed her. I wish you the worst.”
Hanging on the bar of the Montpellier Court of Appeal, Françoise, Caroline's mother, speaks of her unspeakable pain and the mother of Amélie, the second victim, says nothing else after her: “he asks for a forgiveness that we cannot accept.”
In the dock, Jordan Garnier, 25, brown hair, dark blue down jacket and thin glasses, remains impassive, his head sunk into his shoulders.
This Thursday, January 16, the investigating chamber raises the question of his criminal irresponsibility where the victims' families would like a trial.
Was his discernment abolished, on January 14, 2022, when he murdered Amélie, his partner, in their apartment in Roujan (Hérault), with 80 stab wounds?
He tries to decapitate her so that she does not turn into zombie
Before trying to decapitate her with scissors “so she doesn't turn into a zombie” reminds the court ? Then killed Caroline, his neighbor, crossed on the landing while she was walking her dog, with seven blade strokes, for no reason ?
The question of insanity therefore arises, complicated by the fact that the accused had smoked cannabis, making him paranoid, and that psychiatrists do not agree on the diagnosis…
This is what prompts the civil parties and the attorney general to request a referral to the assize court and a popular jury to decide, as permitted by the new 2022 law (see below).
The investigating chamber will decide on February 20, but it can also directly declare Jordan Garnier criminally irresponsible.
“With cannabis, I was delirious”
“With cannabis, I started having memory problems, I know I was delirious, but at the time, I thought it was reality” says the young man, lucid, who had never made people talk about him until then.
With his baccalaureate in his pocket, he gave up studying physics to become a teacher, due to lack of funds, and worked at the local “Super U”, otherwise a homebody, a fan of video games and then of cannabis for only a few months. Suffering from depression, he had visited a doctor at the end of 2021, without discussing the supposed hallucinations and the voices that had guided him.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“I was afraid of being crazy”
“I was afraid of being locked up, I was afraid of being crazy” he replied to the attorney general who was surprised, assuring that Amélie had also tried to reassure him: “she told me it was false, I was convinced it was true.”
The court recalls other mystical and persecution incongruities before the tragedy: extracts from the Bible hidden in his apartment, his claims that he could leave his body and teleport to Africa or that aliens were spying on him behind a mirror.
On January 14, he saw his partner as an enemy, just like his neighbor, and he put both bodies on their backs, arms spread, identically…
Experts are divided on the disease
What role did the cannabis, of which he smoked three joints a day, play in the act? ?
For four psychiatrists, he is schizophrenic, his discernment is abolished, his place is in the hospital and not in prison and that cannabis “can facilitate the emergence of delusional outbursts, but it is not the product that creates the disease” advances Dr. Trape, recalling that he needs of heavy treatment to be stabilized.
For two other experts on the contrary, he doesn't have a mental illness: “he has existential disorders but I think that cannabis played the most important role in the passage to the act because I did not detect any schizophrenia, psychosis is linked to the consumption of products”, estimates Dr. Aiguevives.
But what motive is the court surprised about, especially for the second victim ? “It's the rage that wasn't over” replies the psychiatrist, ruling in favor of a simple impairment of Jordan Garnier's discernment, which would open the way to a real trial before the assize court.
The assize court seized to decide on criminal irresponsibility ?
The jurisdiction of the investigating chamber to judge Jordan Garnier's criminal irresponsibility occupied part of the six hours of hearing.
Because the law of January 2022, following the Halimi affair (which already raised the question of the influence of cannabis on an anti-Semitic and delusional murderous act) now allows the assize court and its popular jury to be called upon to decide, behind closed doors, on this irresponsibility.
For Me Iris Christol, civil party, who had it said at Jordan Garnier that when he did not smoke, his psychiatric problems were less invasive, but also the attorney general Philippe Vermeil, the conditions are there: in particular that the experts are divided or that the abolition of discernment is temporary (it is a delusional outburst) and that the disorder results from the fact of the accused (who in this case smoked cannabis).
“The Assize Court is perhaps more legitimate to judge, he took cannabis and was aware that it aggravated his discomfort” said the attorney general.
If the case is referred before the Assize Court, the latter will then have two possibilities: to consider that there is an abolition of discernment and declare him irresponsible, or to consider that there is only an alteration of discernment, in which case a second Assize Court could judge him.
The investigating chamber will decide on February 20 and Jordan Garnier's defense has requested that the abolition be acted upon by the court of appeal, ending the proceedings with an ex officio hospitalization, as the investigating judge had also requested.
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