Narumi Kurosaki was murdered in December 2016 and his body did not appear. The case toured the world quickly. Nicolas Zepeda, 33 year old Chilean and ex-boyfriend of Kurosaki, is the main accused of the crime and will know this Thursday if the french justice it condemn again.
“I’m not a murderer! I didn’t kill Narumi!” “I don’t know how to say it anymore!” declared Zepeda before bursting into tears in the dock of the appeal court located in Vesoul. The court is made up of three magistrates and nine chosen citizens, who serve as popular jurythey will deliberate the case and announce the verdict.
The relationship between Zepeda and Kurosaki
Zepeda and Kurosaki They met in 2014 in Tsukuba, Japan, while the Chilean was finishing his studies. There, they began a love relationship in February 2015 and then the couple took a trip to Chile from September 6 to October 1, 2015, where Nicolás officially introduced her to his family, including his father Humberto Zepeda Cares (one of the main executives of the Movistar telephone operator) as his partner.
The relationship lasted until October 2016, at which time Narumi traveled to France to continue his studies. He accusedaccording to their own statementstraveled to France on October 6, 2016 and, Kurosaki, disappeared on December 4, 2016 in Besançon (east), where he was as an exchange student. According to the accusation, the Chilean He killed her in the early morning of December 5 in the university residence before get rid of the body.
What penalty does Nicolás Zepeda face if he is found guilty?
The process, which began on December 4, was marked by the constant version changes of the accused, who admitted that he was in the Kurosaki residence days before meeting her and that the objective of his trip to Europe was to visit her. This Thursday, the accused will learn his sentence, which ranges between prison and acquittal. In 2022, a court of first instance sentenced him to 28 years in prisonafter an investigation that found guilty of premeditated murder by Kurosaki. Zepeda, appealed to the ruling and now faces again the possible life imprisonment.
Prosecutor Étienne Manteaux requested a life sentence. “Everything, I insist, everything points to Nicolás Zepeda“, he declared on the eve of the decision and also assured that “Nicolás Zepeda suffocated or strangled her“.
The court in charge of the case must answer, yes or no, three questions: is Nicolás Zepeda guilty of having Kurosaki killed? was premeditated the murder? and did they maintain a sentimental relationship sometime? The question will depend on the answers.nto.
What evidence points against the accused?
According to the prosecutor, Zepeda bought, days before Kurosaki’s disappearance, five liters of fuel and matches, which would strengthen the thesis of the premeditation of the crime. According to prosecutor Manteaux’s hypothesis, the accused burned the body in a wooded area 50 kilometers from Besançon or threw it at Doubs River December 6th.
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Sébastien Bozon / AFP
Furthermore, the prosecutor assured that the “overwhelming evidence” would show that there was a connection to electronic messaging accounts and from one Kurosaki’s social networkfrom Spain, Switzerland and Chile, coinciding with the presence of the Chilean in these countries. The prosecution alleges that Zepeda took possession of her ex-girlfriend’s cell phone and posed as her to those close to her once she was dead.
If the court condemns him, Nicolas Zepeda may appeal to the Court of Cassation in France.
Source: Ambito
