On July 16, 2000, Richard Alessandri was shot dead in his bed. After accusing burglars, his wife Edwige finally becomes the main suspect. During this case, she was convicted three times, but continues to claim her innocence.
A bizarre affair. On the night of July 16, 2000, Richard Alessandridirector of an Intermarché, is shot down by a gun shot at close range, in bed from his home in Pernes-les-Fontaines, in the Vaucluse. In the early morning, his wife, Edwige, warns the emergency services and assures us that burglars have burst into their room before killing her husband. On the spot, the gendarmes did not however find no trace of tampering.
However, they find powder residue on the hands of their youngest son, aged 13. But no weapon was found. On the other hand, the investigators discovered footprints and butts in the garden. Elements which are however only analyzed nine years later and the facts. In the meantime, the wife of the deceased and his eldest son are taken into custody in the fall of 2000. During his interrogation, Yohan accuses his mother, before quickly reconsidering his declarations by affirming that he was put under pressure. But too late, and Edwige is placed in pre-trial detention.
DNA found in cigarette butts
She is sentenced to 12 years in prison at the assizes of Vaucluse in 2006. A verdict confirmed on appeal in Nîmes, but censored by the Court of Cassation. During a new trial before the assizes of the Rhône in 2009, the president finally decided to have the DNA extracted from the cigarette butts found in the garden compared to the National File of DNA fingerprints. But he does not wait for the results of the expertise to complete the hearing and thus declares Edwige Alessandri guilty for the third time and sentenced her to ten years in prison. A few weeks later, the analysis of the butts gives its verdict: the DNA discovered matches that of a man already known for burglaries. Edwige Alessandri was released from prison in 2010 on parole.
Since then she has been fighting to prove her innocence. She has thus embarked on a long journey to review of his conviction. New investigations were notably launched in 2012, before being stopped in 2013 following a dismissal order. A decision which had appealed the lawyer of the son of Edwige Alessandri.