Prosecuted for murder of a spouse, a 61-year-old man was sentenced by the Assize Court of Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) this Friday, to 20 years of criminal imprisonment. The sentence is less than the requisitions of the prosecution.
It is a drama that had moved the whole of France, to the point of triggering strong reactions at the top of the State. And for good reason, on November 10, 2019, Sylvia A. died in Oberhoffen-sur-Moder (Bas-Rhin) in the arms of her daughter, after receiving several stab wounds from her companion.
From the start of the investigation, Jacqui W. admitted to having killed his then 40-year-old wife. Drunk, he had stabbed him several times, causing four deep wounds in the neck and chest. The victim presented, according to the medical examiner, “15 defense wounds” on the right hand and 22 on the left hand.
Even if he was not prosecuted for assassination, the Advocate General Sébastien Pompey estimated during the trial that the sexagenarian had literally “completed” the victim during a “thoughtful and programmed” act. Therefore, after calling him a “manipulator” and a “liar”, the magistrate had requested a 25-year prison sentence.
“It’s deplorable, it’s clearly not enough”
Despite Jacqui W.’s apologies at the end of the trial, the victim’s daughter deplored the verdict, which she said was not severe enough. “I am in shock. Of course the pain will not bring my mother back, but it is not normal, ”she reacted.
If the debates revealed a “toxic couple” and two “dominant” characters between whom the violence gradually “escalated”, the prosecution insisted on the violence of which the victim had been the target since she had asked for a divorce.
Two months before the murder, Sylvia A. had filed a handrail, then a complaint. According to her daughter, she had been subjected to violence from her husband for almost four years.