jewelry store

The three defendants who appeared since Wednesday before the Rhône Assize Court for the assault and kidnapping of a jeweler at his home in Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or were found guilty of theft with a weapon.

Par
Antoine Sillieres

Posted on 03/17/2023 at 8:30 p.m.update on 03/17/2023 at 20:31

Le Figaro Lyon

The court did retain the threat by weapon, loaded or not, of the diamond dealer. This Smith & Wesson with its impressive caliber 44, in front of which the jeweler robbed at his home in Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or had seen death in the face, the night of December 21, 2020. The three individuals who had violently molested him in order to be given precious stones and cash were sentenced by the Rhône Assize Court on Friday. They received 5, 10 and 11 years of criminal imprisonment. Sentences lower than the requisitions of the public prosecutor, fixed between 10 and 15 years.

Aged around 30, the three convicts had admitted the facts as soon as the hearing opened, but tried to minimize their role, assuring in passing that the weapon was not loaded, contrary to the declarations of the victim. The aggravating circumstance of an organized gang was ultimately not retained, the court not being able to determine with certainty the role of each. Placed in pre-trial detention during the investigation, they returned to prison in Corbas, Saint-Étienne and Grenoble. All three had been quickly arrested following the facts, including two immediately, after a chase on the quays of Saône which had ended in a spectacular accident in the climb of Choulans, aboard the Audi of the jeweler and d a Clio stolen in Switzerland a few weeks earlier.

Tracked by the PJ

The team was also followed by investigators from the judicial police who had placed GPS trackers and sound instruments on some of their vehicles. Especially following another violent home-jacking in Switzerland. Switzerland, where two of the three convicts tried to go earlier in the day on December 21, before crashing the vehicle loaned by a friend they were driving. After a forced return to Lyon, they had decided to go to the jeweler whose one of the three individuals – the one who received the heaviest sentence – had had the address for several years.

Convinced that the diamond dealer had a safe at his home with precious stones and money, they had multiplied the violence against him for 30 minutes to get the fantasized loot back. In the end, they only left with a few tens of euros, a laptop and some clothes.