Four people were killed in three towns of the Essonne department, south of Paris, between November 2011 and April 2012. They were a woman of 35, a man of 52, a man of 81 and a woman of 48. They did not know one another, and, as the press described the victims, none had any history of trouble. A motorcyclist was seen at the time, and forensic findings later tied the four killings together. Police asked the public for help in finding the rider, and the man they arrested about ten days afterward was Yoni Palmier, then unemployed and homeless. He was tried twice. The Essonne cour d'assises, sitting at Evry, sentenced him to life imprisonment in April 2015. In March 2017 the cour d'assises of Paris, sitting on appeal, sentenced him to the same term, after he admitted all four killings on the first day of the hearing.
Yoni Palmier was described by RCI, the broadcaster that covered both trials, as a Guadeloupean. The reports give his age as 36 at the first trial in 2015 and 38 at the appeal in 2017. Public Senat, writing at the start of the appeal, gave it as 39, so the figures differ by a year between outlets. His date of birth was not reported.
Little of his life before 2011 reached the press. Public Senat reported earlier convictions, including one for violence against his parents. At the time of the killings he had no work and no fixed home. Sud Radio, reporting the end of the appeal, described his family background as troubled.
At the appeal, witnesses spoke about his childhood. According to RCI, they described a mother who was protective and a father who did not want him, and a young man who was solitary and had compulsive habits. RCI wrote that he did not react while these matters were discussed. These are statements made by witnesses in court, not findings. They did not explain the killings, and Palmier himself gave few explanations.
Public Senat described the four victims as people without any history of trouble and without links to one another. Reports give their ages, towns and dates, and the lawyers who spoke for their relatives at the appeal gave four names.
The first victim was a woman of 35, killed in November 2011 in Juvisy-sur-Orge. Public Senat reported that witnesses had seen a motorcyclist nearby. The month, but not the exact day, was reported.
The second was a man of 52, killed on February 22, 2012, also in Juvisy-sur-Orge.
The third was a man of 81, killed on March 17, 2012, in Ris-Orangis.
The fourth was a woman of 48, killed on April 5, 2012, in Grigny. She was a widow raising a child on her own, according to Public Senat.
At the appeal, RCI named the four people whose families were represented in the courtroom: Nadjia Boudjemia-Lahcene, Nathalie Davids, Marcel Brunetto and Jean-Yves Bonnerue. Which name belongs to which killing has not been reported. RCI reported that the lawyers spoke for relatives of each: the family of one victim, the son of another, and the partner and daughter of a fourth. A son of the last victim also gave evidence on March 22, 2017.
The four deaths happened in separate events over about five months, each in a different setting, in three towns within a short distance of one another. Public Senat reported that investigators found the killings to be linked by forensic findings and that a motorcyclist was seen near each of them.
The first inquiry went elsewhere. After the November 2011 killing, the woman's former partner became an early suspect. He made a confession, then retracted it, and he was ruled out, according to Public Senat. The later killings, which had nothing to do with him, settled that question.
By April 2012 the police were treating the four deaths as the work of one person. They made a public appeal for the motorcyclist. Public Senat reported that Palmier was arrested about ten days later. No exact date for the arrest has been published, and no specific witness or lead has been credited with it.
By the time of the appeal the physical evidence was strong. Public Senat reported that the motorcycle was traced to Palmier and that DNA evidence tied him to the killings. Sud Radio, reporting the opening of the appeal, wrote that investigators were certain of his guilt and had what it called overwhelming evidence.
The trial opened before the assises d'Evry in the spring of 2015 and was scheduled to last three weeks. He was accused of four murders committed between November 2011 and April 2012, and he faced life imprisonment.
RCI reported on April 1, 2015 that he denied everything. He had testified before the jurors, and RCI described his explanations as sketchy and very often senseless. The court heard his mother that day. RCI's later reports add that, until the appeal, he had accepted only a share of responsibility for the Juvisy-sur-Orge killing of November 2011, saying he had not caused the deaths himself, and that he had denied the other three.
In April 2015 the court sentenced him to reclusion criminelle a perpetuite with a security period of 22 years, for the four murders. The security period fixes a term during which he cannot ask for release on parole. The court also ordered a rétention de sûreté. Public Senat explained that this is a rarely used measure under which a person judged dangerous at the end of a sentence may be kept in a secure facility, and noted that the prisons inspector general had asked in 2015 for the measure to be repealed.
RCI reported that Palmier appealed a few days after the verdict.
The appeal opened on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, before the cour d'assises of Paris. The charge was the same: four murders committed in Essonne.
On the first day he admitted, for the first time, that he had killed all four people. Sud Radio and RCI both reported the admission. He told the presiding judge that he would answer her questions as far as he could. The civil parties, according to RCI, saw the admission as a first step and wanted fuller explanations from him.
The explanations came slowly. RCI reported on March 17 that the presiding judge urged him to go further, telling him that he had done part of the way and should keep going. RCI wrote that since 2015 his appearance had changed, that he had grown his hair and gained weight, and that he sat hunched in the dock. It reported that he said he had not chosen his victims and that he accepted his acts had been out of all proportion.
On March 22 his mother was heard. RCI wrote that she spoke with great difficulty and had not accepted that her son had confessed.
By March 28, after two weeks of hearings, RCI reported that Palmier had been expected to speak that day and did not. Despite confessing on the first day, he had said very little during the trial, and the families' hope of learning the whole truth had faded. Their lawyers spoke accordingly. The lawyer for relatives of one victim, Maitre Farès, told him: "Tout ca pour ca ? Vous auriez pu avoir quelques mots" (All this for that? You could have had a few words). The lawyer for another family told RCI that the appeal had been "un appel pour rien", an appeal for nothing. The lawyer for the son of a third victim, Maitre Natali, said they were asking for justice and described four murders that were coldly planned and carried out against innocent victims. The lawyer for the partner and daughter of a fourth victim spoke to the accused directly while her clients wept.
The advocate general again asked for reclusion criminelle a perpetuite with a security period of 22 years, and also asked the jury to order a rétention de sûreté, Sud Radio reported. The prosecutor described Palmier as an industrious predator whose aim was to kill for the sake of killing, and said that nothing in his explanations showed compassion for the victims.
The verdict came on Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Sud Radio reported that the court sentenced him again to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years, the maximum penalty. Asked by the presiding judge whether he had anything to add, he answered, almost inaudibly: "Non, si ce n'est que je demande pardon a tout le monde" (No, except that I ask everyone's forgiveness). Maitre Frank Natali, speaking for the family of one victim, said the decision was very firm and would allow relatives to grieve.
RCI's review of the year's cases, published after the trial, reported that the Paris court upheld the life term and the 22-year security period and did not renew the rétention de sûreté.
No co-defendant appeared in any report of either trial. Public Senat noted that Palmier had made vague references to a group of killers, but it identified no accomplice, and no one else was tried.
Palmier was serving life imprisonment after the verdict of March 29, 2017. Whether he lodged a further appeal on points of law, and where he is held, was not reported.
November 2011: a woman of 35 is killed in Juvisy-sur-Orge.
February 22, 2012: a man of 52 is killed in Juvisy-sur-Orge.
March 17, 2012: a man of 81 is killed in Ris-Orangis.
April 5, 2012: a woman of 48 is killed in Grigny.
April 2012: police appeal for the motorcyclist; Palmier is arrested about ten days later.
April 2015: the Essonne cour d'assises at Evry sentences him to reclusion criminelle a perpetuite with a 22-year security period and a rétention de sûreté.
March 14, 2017: his appeal opens in Paris; he admits all four killings.
March 29, 2017: the Paris court sentences him to life imprisonment with a 22-year security period.