This Tuesday, March 11 began the Valentin’s trial, a teenager who killed his parents before setting fire to his house. The young man admitted the facts.
This Tuesday, March 11 opened the Valentin’s trial, a teenager who killed his parents in November 2023 in Châteauvilain, before fire the family home. For three days in camera at the Bourgoin-Jallieu children’s court, the teenager will be tried for “assassination and destruction by dangerous means”. With the peculiarities of the law concerning his minority, he risks up to 20 years in prison. The judgment will be rendered on Thursday.
On November 27, 2023, the young Valentin, 15, killed his father Didier and his mother Isabelle. He had stolen the rifle of his father, who practiced the sporting shot, then went up in his parents’ room around 5 am, according to the story he held during his police custody where he admitted his premeditated act. He both killed them in the head. After the drama, he set fire to the family home, shot their dog, before fleeing by taking his parents’ car.
The two bodies were found charred inside the home. The young man on the run was then wanted, but he had invented a new identity. The car he had stolen was finally found rugged in the Drôme and the young man was arrested when a bus descent in Montpellier six days later. After his rapid confessions, he was imprisoned in early December 2023.
A “normal” family but a terrible disease
Valentin had good relations with his parents and his family, however, was “without stories”. To explain his gesture, the adolescent said he wanted to “rebuild his life, destroy everything and start again”. The latter had to be dropped out of Lyme disease, from which his mother also suffered. Thus, he did not do much of his days and found himself alone after the departure of his brother in Lyon for his studies. He reproached his family for not having found a way to heal him.
According to psychiatric expertise, he would also suffer from an autistic disorder, associated with depression. If this could alter his discernment, he was not devoid of it. This is why he was tried responsible for his actions.