First day of his trial: Nordahl Lelandais maintains his version, "I killed Arthur Noyer without wanting to"

Miscellaneous facts - Justice Dossier: Nordahl Lelandais -Updated on-

The trial of Nordahl Lelandais for the murder of the young soldier Arthur Noyer began this Monday morning at 10 am in front of the Assize Court of Savoy. The accused appeared for the first time in public, he faced the Noyer family in the front row, behind a huge portrait of their son.

6:10 p.m. After a 25-minute break, it was the turn of Christiane Lelandais, the accused's mother, to come and testify at the bar. Green jacket, red stole, small, blonde hair squared, she speaks loudly and clearly, comfortable facing the president. It is a mother who speaks of a "desired, loved, sweet, normal" child, of a "happy childhood, with love". She also says her gratitude to "find her son" as she sees him today, when she no longer recognized when he was hospitalized.

6 p.m. Hounded by journalists at the break, Alain Jakubowicz refused to comment.

5:41 p.m. The hearing is adjourned for 20 minutes to ventilate the room. It will resume at 6 p.m.

5:40 p.m. The defense has spoken, Maître Jakubowicz questions his client. He undertakes to deconstruct the disastrous image that certain witnesses, heard in the afternoon, have drawn up of the private life of Nordahl Lelandais. "No, not all of the accused's conquests were negative towards him and deemed him respectful," he thunders.

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5:18 p.m. It's been more than two hours that Nordahl Lelandais tells his life, his career. On his cocaine use, the Advocate General, Thérèse Brunisso, asks him "why not to have spoken about it at the time of the investigation into the murder of Arthur Noyer?" "I was ashamed" replies the accused, but she does not believe him and stings him to the quick: "Mr. Lelandais, you are an intelligent man. You are accused of murder, it is serious. To say that I I was ashamed to use cocaine, I find it hard to believe you" she told him. Then she asks him if he used cocaine at the time of Arthur Noyer's murder, he replies "don't remember".

5:03 p.m. On the stand, the accused recounts how his professional failures undermined his life. In 2017 (year of the death of Corporal Noyer and Maëlys de Araujo), Nordahl Lelandais says that he was drinking alone at home, taking cocaine when he woke up and did not accept help from anyone. "Your mom didn't see anything?" asks Maitre Boulloud, trying to strike a chord. “I hid it from him,” replies the accused. "I was ashamed to say it. But yes. I used drugs. Yes, I was a drug addict." Friends ask him if he needs help. “I should have spoken to them” he regrets, wiping away another tear on his “ill-being”.

4:55 p.m. When it comes to talking about the only homosexual relationship he acknowledges, with a certain Richard, Nordahl Lelandais says he does not remember well. At the instruction, he had only recognized "caresses".

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4:15 p.m. The president insists and asks Nordahl Lelandais to clarify certain points about his romantic relationships. In terms of love, he says he has had a dozen stories, but denies being unstable: "I have always been respectful." However, the accused was registered on dating sites, which he did not leave when he was in a relationship. His ex-companions, in particular, paint an unflattering portrait of him: "nice at first, then lazy, nervous, liar, unfaithful".

4:01 p.m. The defense takes the floor, Nordahl Lelandais speaks and answers questions calmly. "Everything is correct" he says and "just in relation to the study sport, I did a normal year". He speaks clearly. He answers in detail the questions of the president on his education and his professional career.

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He joined one of the Army dog ​​brigades in 2001. From 2004, his superiors accused him of uncontrolled "mood swings". He was discharged from the army in 2005, following an eye operation, for an injury he blamed on a superior. Nordahl Lelandais says "the army, we call it the great mute, (...), I had threats if I filed a complaint following this injury". He explains that after the army, he chose to work in the interim, for financial reasons.

3:55 p.m. The personality investigator concludes by speaking of a man and a life "without particular difficulties", she specifies that she does not like the word "banal".

3:45 p.m. Nordahl Lelandais has no children and shows no emotion when listening to this summary of his life and this portrait that we draw of him.

3:32 p.m. Nordahl Lelandais does not recognize any addiction, but he admits to having used cannabis from the age of 17 to 30 and "occasionally" taken cocaine from 2015.

3:15 p.m. On his intimate relationships, we learn that Nordahl Lelandais "liked a lot" according to the testimony of his mother, that he did not have many ongoing relationships and that he recognizes a relationship with only one man "out of curiosity" . [This man, Richard, will be heard as a witness on the 2nd day, Tuesday Editor's note]. The accused listens attentively, shaking his head from time to time, as if to approve certain parts of the report.

2:50 p.m. The hearing resumes. The first witness heard is a personality investigator. She met the accused three times, between December 2017 and March 2018, and speaks of a "childhood and adolescence without any major difficulty", surrounded by love and "never the victim of violence from her parents" .

Things took a turn for the worse after his time in sports studies and in the army. Professional experiences that put him in check. He connects odd jobs, sick leave and unemployment benefits. One of his former employers speaks of an "angry man who can't stand authority".

1:45 p.m. The hearing is suspended, it will resume at 2:45 p.m. This afternoon the accused will be questioned about his life course. His sister and his mother in particular will be called upon to testify to his personality, without going into the substance of the case.

1:36 p.m. "I killed Arthur Noyer without wanting to kill him," said Nordahl Lelandais after the indictment was read. The president briefly questioned him, he maintained his version of the facts: a fight that went wrong on a background of alcohol.

1:20 p.m. The president proceeds to the reading of the reminder of the facts. We get to the heart of the matter: what the investigators uncovered, what the witnesses said, what the telephone and video surveillance reveal. The jurors discover the long investigation and the specific charges against the accused. Until now, they only knew the assertions of the press. Nordahl Lelandais listens, fearless, his eyes riveted on the president who reads the summary.

1:04 p.m. The court calls all the experts and witnesses who must testify at the trial. The president of the assize court reads the indictment, facing an impassive Nordahl Lelandais.

Note that a key witness did not give any sign of life and refused to testify. He was in prison with Nordahl Lelandais.

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12:57 p.m. The hearing resumes, the two experts will not be physically cited, contrary to what was planned during the trial. The defense also obtained the nullity of the psychiatric expertise of the accused because of a legitimate doubt about the impartiality of one of the experts. On the other hand, the last psychiatric expertise, carried out within the framework of the Maëlys affair, will be examined during this hearing.

12:19 p.m. The court withdrew to deliberate on the validity of this expertise raised by the defence.

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12:03. After an hour of explanations by the lawyer of Nordahl Lelandais, it is the turn of Maître Boulloud, the lawyer of the Noyer family to speak "it starts very strong!" he commented reacting to the previous intervention. Then he addresses the victim _"you see Arthur, what remains of you, not much, must be turning over in his grave. Your murderer has the right with him. Then fixing the accused: "he had the right to live and you killed him“_ he proclaims. In his box, Nordahl Lelandais nods and nods up and down.

11:06 a.m. The defendant's lawyer, Maître Jakubowicz, begins with a long questioning of a psychiatric expert's report, dated 2018, on the grounds that the expert in question had spoken, two years later, in 2020, in a television show about serial killers. According to him, the experts "failed in their duty of neutrality, they do not guarantee a fair trial".

According to his lawyer, Nordahl Lelandais was “a zombie at the time, his psychological state has evolved. He is no longer the same man.

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Mr. Jakubowicz scratches the media and their "hype", media in which he refuses to express himself and which, according to him, made his client "a serial killer" even before the start of the trial. He then addresses the jurors and asks them for a "superhuman effort", that of disregarding all the information they already have about the accused.

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10:38. The jurors have been drawn by lot, it will be a majority male jury: four men and two women. Before taking the oath, the president briefly had the masks removed from the jurors and the accused because "justice is done with an uncovered face," he said. Nordahl Lelandais also takes off his mask, we finally see his face.

The president puts the masks back on. Alain Jakubowicz asks that his client remain "without a mask and without a filter", because justice does not go masked, he declares.

📻 Nordahl Lelandais appeared in public for the first time since his arrest

Nordahl Lelandais looked around the room, without stopping at the portrait of Arthur Noyer

10:20. Nordahl Lelandais looked around the room, without dwelling on the smiling photo portrait of Arthur Noyer. As he entered the room, the Noyer parents stared at him before looking away.

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The president also sends a message to the civil parties and the public: "The assizes can be a violent place. Be dignified in the context of this trial and do not disturb the course of this hearing if the trial does not take not the direction you think".

Light blue shirt, beige pants and neatly trimmed beard

10:15 a.m. Nordahl Lelandais entered the box of the accused. The hearing has just opened, Nordahl Lelandais declines his identity, the president indicates to him his right to remain silent. Dressed in a light blue shirt and beige pants, he looks athletic, with graying hair and a cropped beard. He has obviously taken care of his appearance for this first day of hearing.

9:47 a.m. The Noyer parents brought a large portrait of their son which they placed next to them, facing the box where Nordahl Lelandais will be placed. "It is so that the accused is facing Arthur during the trial" explains the lawyer for the Noyer family, Maître Bernard Boulloud. The president accepted that he remains at the feet of the civil parties for the duration of the trial.

9:30 a.m. In a few minutes, Nordahl Lelandais will take his place in the defendants' box, here is the vision he will have of the courtroom, of this box. He faces thirty years of criminal imprisonment for the murder of Arthur Noyer on the night of April 11 to 12, 2017, near Chambéry.

9:10 a.m. The defense entered the room. Master Alain Jakubowicz, below, defends Nordahl Lelandais.

On the civil party side, Maître Bernard Boulloud is the lawyer for the family of Arthur Noyer (in the center in the photo below).

9:00 a.m. Nordahl Lelandais arrived at the Chambéry courthouse.

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8:45 a.m. The public can attend the hearing and is already rushing to try to have one of the few places available, the gauge has been restricted, Covid obliges.

8:30 a.m. The trial begins today at 10:00 a.m., but the journalists have already been present since early in the morning. Forty-six media are accredited for this assize trial.

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