Alleged perpetrator of jogger attack, identified by DNA, charged with attempted murder and placed in pre-trial detention

Le colonel Capsié, le procureur adjoint Kocher et le colonel Casso. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

This Sunday, January 19, the Nîmes prosecutor's office has just revealed the detention of the alleged attacker of the Vergèze jogger. The 25-year-old man, faced with solid evidence, admitted the facts as soon as he was taken into custody on Friday in the premises of the Nîmes research section.

Locked up after being indicted for attempted murder, this is the judicial fate of the alleged attacker of the jogger who was savagely attacked with a knife in Vergèze on January 11.

This Sunday, January 19, the deputy public prosecutor, Frédéric Kocher, held a press conference during which he looked back at the sequence of the attack on the jogger who was attacked by surprise and with a bladed weapon while she was jogging on a fitness trail.

The magistrate recalled that initially, the victim, who suffered from chest, neck and shoulder injuries, had to undergo surgery to treat six wounds. Frédéric Kocher also explained that the gendarmes of the Gard group had deployed considerable resources to find a man on the run and deploy “a large-scale operational system”, noted Colonel Casso who leads the gendarmes in the Gard.

“A knife to attack someone”

The Nîmes research section was implemented fairly quickly and collected numerous clues such as images from the video surveillance of the City of Vergèze. The investigation into attempted murder also gave rise to a large number of DNA samples which proved to be fundamental for the continuation of the case since, combined with the video images, they made it possible to identify the suspect with certainty. Prosecutor Kocher stated that the suspect had stated that he “had armed himself with a knife” with the aim of “attacking someone”.

Facial recognition that identifies the suspect who was on file with the TAJ

During the press conference, it was stated that during the search, the knife used in the attack had been found at the young man's home with blood stains from the victim that were revealed by DNA analysis. Similarly, DNA traces were also found on the attacker's jacket.

For his part, the Colonel Capsié who commands the research section revealed that the investigation focused in particular on the work “of operating several dozen video surveillance cameras in the municipality over a fairly wide time slot”.

Several dozen cameras to operate

The head of the SR explained that the images were of variable quality, which had increased the difficulty in analyzing the images. Finally, a video sequence with a better quality document made it possible to find an image that could be compared to the criminal record processing file (TAJ). And this is thanks to “facial recognition that allowed 80% of the suspect to be identified”.

In short, the suspect was listed for a trivial reason but had not been convicted by the courts. His photo was nevertheless included with his description. Then, telephone cross-checks confirmed the suspicions.
 

He had just been hospitalized in a psychiatric ward

In police custody, this suspect admitted to all the facts. He may have acted out of a romantic disappointment after being released from a psychiatric hospitalization. But he may have struck randomly because he didn't know the jogger.

He was imprisoned after being charged with attempted murder. The courts have so far ruled that the act was premeditated. The attacker theoretically faces life imprisonment.

The psychiatric assessment carried out during the investigation will be decisive in analyzing the young man's mental state at the time of the act and in deciding whether there was an alteration or even an abolition of discernment.

“My client, a young man in his twenties, spent 46 hours in police custody,
agreeing to answer the police officers' questions. He was charged with attempted murder and placed in pretrial detention, in accordance with the public prosecutor's orders. The investigation will continue under the responsibility of the investigating judge”, said Mr. Alexandre Zwertvaegher, the young suspect's lawyer.

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