Yoni Palmier

Yoni Palmier (born December 24, 1978 in Montmorency), nicknamed "The Killer of Essonne" is a French serial killer.

He was sentenced on April 16, 2015 to the highest sentence of the French Penal Code for a series of four murders that occurred from November 2011 to April 2012 within a radius of five kilometers in the north-east of the department of the Essonne.

Before the murders

Until 2005 Yoni Palmier lived with his parents in a seven-storey bar in Ris-Orangis. Before this he had already been sentenced six times, the most serious of which was eight months in prison for aggravated violence against his mother, whom he had stabbed, and for carrying a prohibited weapon.

Murders

On November 27, 2011, Nathalie Davids, a 35 year old laboratory employee, was found by a neighbor injured in her parking lot at 4th Pasteur Street in Juvisy-sur-Orge She died a few hours later at the hospital. Nathalie Davids had seven bullet wounds, including one in her head. A week later, her former companion, Michel Courtois, was arrested. He recognized the facts before retracting. He was indicted and placed in custody at the Fleury-Mérogis prison.

On February 22, 2012, Jean-Yves Bonnerue, a technical executive aged 52 and the person who had discovered Nathalie's body, was shot in the back of the head while he was cleaning the trunk of his car in the same car park. The two victims knew each other, they were neighbors and belonged to the same union council of co-ownership.It was he who would gave indications to the policemen so that they could trace of the former companion of Nathalie.

On March 17, 2012, in Ris-Orangis, Marcel Brunetto, an 81-year-old bank retiree, was shot in the neck in the lobby of his apartment block located at 48th Pierre-Brossolette Street.

On April 5, 2012, in Grigny, Nadjia Lahsene, 48 years old, was killed when she entered the lobby of her building at 1st Ravin Street. The killer shot her three times in the head. This woman, of Algerian origin, lived alone with her 18-year-old son since the death of her husband. She worked at Orly Airport.

Investigation

Each time, the murder weapon was a 7.65 mm semi-automatic pistol, which,the authorities, supported the thesis of an isolated killer. The weapon used to murder the 47-year-old mother in Grigny, is the same as that with which were killed the other three people in the same area of Essonne in November, February and March. A hundred investigators were mobilized to try and unravel the mystery of the series of four crimes committed in less than five months in the department. The judicial police launched, when on Friday, April 6, 2012 in the evening, a witness called. She wanted to find the trace, in "the west of Paris", of a blue and white Suzuki motorcycle type GSX-R 750, a model of the year 2001 or 2002. The machine had a white rear wheel well, a back cover and the seat was also covered in white. Two lights were embedded in the wheel arch and the muffler was black. This bike would have served the serial killer to escape. On April 16, 2012, Yoni Palmier was arrested. On his indications, the weapon was found in a box in Draveil. On April 27, 2012, Yoni Palmier was initially indicted for three murders, mainly because of the following elements:

• Yoni Palmier's DNA was the only one present on the weapon used.
• Palmier rented a box in the parking lot of the building where Nathalie Davids was killed on the 27th and Jean-Yves Bonnerue on the 22nd in Juvisy-sur-Orge.
• Yoni Palmier lived until 2005 on Pierre-Brossolette Street in Ris-Orangis, close to the scene of the murder of Marcel Brunetto,
• The Grigny building in which Nadjia Lahcène was shot is less than 800 metres from a box rented by Palmier in Viry-Châtillon, where a Suzuki GSX-R motorcycle, a scooter, a helmet and a jacket were found. This two-wheeled and these clothes corresponding to those of the killer of Essonne, according to several witnesses.

He was then indicted for the fourth murder, that of Nathalie Davids. Initially it was Michel Courtois who had been indicted for the murder of this woman, who was his mistress. The latter has since been cleared.

Custody

• On January 22, 2013, Palmier was transferred to the Fresnes Prison hospital due to a shoulder problem, where he tried to escape: "The supervisors found in his cell a rope of 3 m, a knife, 125 € cash and a metal hook".
• On June 19, 2014, he was severely beaten by several detainees in the Meaux-Chauconin prison walkway.

Trial

First cour d'assises

The trial opened on March 31, 2015. His friends described him as a dark and violent character. His only ex-mistress, Valerie, talked about violent sexual acts that made her bleed. She left him because she suspected he was homosexual. Palmier then went on to have a short homosexual relationship with a neighbor.

During the trial, Palmier expressed himself in a very confused way. He recognized himself as the culprit of the first murder, that of Nathalie Davids. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a 22-year lock-in period, the maximum penalty provided by the Penal Code. The court also issued a security detention, a rare provision that came into effect in 2008, allowing the release of a convicted person to be re-evaluated each year after his sentence has been served. It is, in theory, the heaviest sentence to be pronounced under the Penal Code.

Court of Appeal

The trial on appeal began on March 14, 2017. From the beginning of the trial, when questioned by the president, the accused declared that he had committed the four murders.