On Wednesday June 2, 2021, a sentence of 17 years imprisonment was pronounced against Pierre-Olivier Labastida, for the murder of his wife, Jessica Astorga Carballo, 26 years old.
Justice is not gullible. Pierre-Olivier Labastida was found guilty by the Rhône Assize Court of “intentional homicide” on his wife, Jessica Astorga Carballo, on August 11, 2018. He was thus sentenced to seventeen years of criminal imprisonment. The man had strangled her with an arm lock while she was back and tilted her body out the window. In the early morning, Jessica Astorga Carballodans will be discovered in a pool of blood at the bottom of their building in Lyon, reports Liberation.fr. The day before, the couple had gone to the home of Pierre-Olivier Labastida’s parents to discuss divorce.
Another distressing feminicide. But the saddest thing about this affair is the murderer’s defense: he had told the police that his companion had voluntarily thrown herself out of the window on the third floor. Then, on August 13, 2018, he eventually surrendered to the police by changing version. He had explained that an argument would have led him to “calm” and “control” Jessica, by squeezing her neck, before tossing her into the void.
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“an emotional ambush”
In court, the Advocate General indicated that “the moment of strangulation lasted a long time”, and that Pierre-Olivier Labastida tightened the neck of the victim for at least three minutes, according to the estimate of forensic scientists. For the victim’s family lawyer, Me Raphaël Malleval, relayed by The Parisian, “she had fallen into an emotional ambush”. Pierre-Olivier Labastida had met Jessica Astorga Carballo after a six-month trip to Mexico in 2016. She had then followed her to France and when her visa had expired they were married so that she would stay, with the decor emotional drug use. But according to the accused, the “very close relationship ” withers and even evokes “Jess’s suicidal tendencies”, “his instability, his”emotional blackmail” and his “crises”. What rejects the family of the victim. Pierre-Olivier Labastida concluded with this sentence: “I pressed her against me, I kept telling her to stop destroying me, to accept the divorce, when I stopped talking, she was perfectly calm, so I released my grip.”
She was “head over heels in love with someone who no longer loved her”, recalled Master Raphaël Malleval, adding: “She was unstable because she was unhappy in France? Does that allow her to kill her?”
If you are a victim or witness of domestic violence, support numbers and platforms are available:
- National and anonymous listening number: 39 19
- In case of emergency: call 17 or 112
- Online reporting: go to the platform STOP THE VIOLENCE