Murder of Alexia: the thesis of rape by Jonathann Daval undermined

Second day of trial for Jonathann Daval. This Tuesday morning, the thesis advanced by the civil parties of a post-mortem rape of Alexia Daval by her husband was challenged by an expert cited before the assizes of Haute-Saône, pending a confrontation crucial between the accused and his in-laws.

The track of a rape, advanced by the civil parties, was never retained by the instruction and is not reproached to Jonathann Daval before the assizes of Haute-Saône, where he answers exclusively for “murder on spouse” , is liable to life imprisonment.

Asked by one of the accused’s lawyers, Me Randall Schwerdorffer, on the existence of “evidence of post-mortem sexual intercourse” involving his client and Alexia, Antoine Tracqui, one of the forensic pathologists, a answered in the negative: “Not only do I have no proof of a post mortem report, but I have no positive arguments in this direction”.

This hypothesis is now “completely removed from the discussions”, welcomed during a break Me Schwerdorffer, calling for “refocus on the file”.

To support the thesis of the rape, the lawyers of the civil parties had pointed out Monday the presence of sperm in the body and on the clothes of the victim, Jonathann Daval assuring to have had a sexual intercourse three days before the murder committed on the night of the 27th to the October 28, 2017.

“It is not at all abnormal that we still find spermatozoa three days after” a report, again ruled Antoine Tracqui, who did not detect either “signs of proven sexual violence” on the body of Alexia. The latter received “five to ten blows” to the face and head and the strangulation, which lasted “five to six minutes”, is the cause of death, he recalled.

Jonathann covered his ears several times

Alexia’s parents, Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot, left the room for a moment not to hear the details of her report, which also addressed the cremation of the body. Jonathann has blocked his ears several times.

The civil parties also suspect Jonathann Daval, 36, of having premeditated his action and sought to poison his wife by administering drugs to her over a long period and without her knowledge. Here again, these assumptions were not retained at the end of the investigation.

Tuesday afternoon, Jonathann Daval will be confronted with his former in-laws, determined to hold the accused to account, who has long played the grieving widowers.

“I know that it is a very important day, that it is the day or never that I will be able to speak to him” and to say to him “what I have on the heart”, declared on his arrival in court the mother. Alexia, Isabelle Fouillot. She expects this audition which promises to be decisive and intense that Jonathann “crack once again”.

Alexia’s parents want an explanation

Isabelle Fouillot’s role was “decisive” during the investigation: “every time she met (Jonathann), something happened”, stressed her lawyer, Me Gilles-Jean Portejoie, as when she had extracted new confessions during a shocking hearing in December 2018. Monday, the first of the five days of this trial, the Fouillots had announced their desire to challenge their former son-in-law, whom they considered to be a son .

Often on the verge of tears on Monday, the thirty-something, who multiplied the versions during the investigation, again assumed having killed his wife, a 29-year-old bank employee found dead on October 30, 2017 in a wood near the marital home in Gray -la-Ville (Haute-Saône).

He had sounded the alert by asserting that she had not returned from a jog. Arrested in January 2018, he had admitted the murder after multiple reversals, admitting in fine to have also set fire to the body. According to him, the drama followed a heated argument, as the couple struggled to have a child.

He indicated during the investigation that he had “strangled her to keep her silent”, assuring that his wife “humiliated her” but that he had not wanted to kill her. A time accused by Jonathann of having killed Alexia, his brother-in-law Grégory Gay will also be called to the bar on Tuesday, as will his wife Stéphanie, Alexia’s sister. The verdict is expected Friday.