"Recule bouboule", the chilling story of the Nice jeweler's robbery in court

Despite himself, Stephan Turk, 69, the jeweler on rue d'Angleterre in Nice, found himself in the spotlight for four days.

This merchant who was attacked, brutalized and robbed when he had just opened the roller shutter of his shop on the morning of September 11, 2013, settled down next to his lawyers, Mes Franck De Vita and Yassen Djendel, in the victim's bench, Monday morning. But with in mind that in a few months, he will take his place in the dock of this same Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes.

A WAVE OF SUPPORT

After having handed over under duress more than €100,000 worth of jewelery stored in a safe, he grabbed a revolver and shot three times at the two criminals.

Antony Asli, 17, fatally shot in the back, collapsed on rue d'Italie.

His accomplice, riding a stolen scooter, managed to escape.

At the time, the jeweler, indicted for intentional homicide, had benefited from a sudden and unprecedented wave of support on social networks. He had rallied to his cause nearly 1.6 million "likes" on Facebook. To at best sympathize with the fate of the merchant, at worst to congratulate him for having killed a petty criminal.

Who was the second robber, pilot of the Yamaha T-Max? For the investigating judge in charge of the investigation and the police officers of the criminal brigade of the PJ, charges weigh on Rami Khachroub, a young person from Carros returned Monday morning before the Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes for robbery army.

His DNA fingerprint was found on a can of bleach. The product was used to erase all traces on the scooter discovered on the road to Bellet, on the heights of Nice.

The judge suspects him of having fled to Tunisia the day after the hold-up, considers that he is lying when he says he does not know Antony Asli, residing like him in Carros, having like him a criminal record.

Left-handed, boxer, athletic, Ramzi Khachroub has similarities to the individual filmed hitting the jeweler. Will the bundle of clues and embarrassing testimonies resist the pressure of an assize trial and the instruction of President Benoît Delaunay?

AN ACCUSED WHO STRONGLY DENIED

The accused always denied being the driver of the scooter, explaining that he slept at his girlfriend's house the morning of the incident. Supported by his lawyer Me Frédéric Hentz, he has been in pre-trial detention for two years.

"Stephan Turk, he cannot affirm that Ramzi Kachroub is one of his attackers", admits Me De Vita, while adding that there are "serious charges against this young man".

Another resident of Carros, Alexandre M., defended by Mes Anouck Delpuget and Monsaf Belhireche, is being prosecuted, against the advice of the prosecution, for complicity in robbery army.

He will appear free. He is accused of having knowingly provided Antony Asli with a balaclava and gloves. What he disputes.

"gratuitous violence"

On the second day of the trial, Stephan Turk preferred to turn his back on the television of the Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes. He casts a few furtive glances over his shoulder but he already knows the scenario.

The jurors suddenly find themselves immersed in the heat of the action. A fixed camera recorded the attack.

Everyone sees and hears the metal curtain rise and stop halfway up. It's 8:45 a.m. Stephan Turk cuts off the alarm and is about to open his shop. A few rays of sunshine come in. A violent and sudden kick in the glass door startled the assistance. Two black, helmeted, armed silhouettes rush in. The first directly kicks the jeweler. "Left kick, left kick, left punch," lists the police captain of the crime prevention brigade, insisting. "Free violence", comments in passing Me Franck De Vita, lawyer for the jeweler.

"The attack lasts 2 minutes and 43 seconds, which is relatively long for a robbery", observes the Nice PJ policeman.

Protected from prying eyes by the metal curtain, the two criminals force the jeweler to open the safe.

"120,000 euros of jewelry will be stolen", specifies the investigator. "Quick, quick, open, open, go, go, back up Bouboule", intimate the robbers who fill a sports bag and pick up the case of the shotgun. The video ends with the response of the jeweler who squats, weapon in hand. Three shots ring out. No camera in the street filmed the death of young Asli.

LEFT-HANDED OR RIGHT-HANDED?

In the box, Ramzi Khachroub, 22, remains unfazed.

The tall, elegant young man, with an assured voice and impressive build shaped during two years in pre-trial detention, denies any involvement. Moreover, he claims that he is ambidextrous. His lawyer, Me Frédéric Hentz disputes the findings of the policeman: "You say that the individual who throws his left leg in the door is left-handed. But, as a boxer, he can also engage the left leg to protect his strong side. "

The way of holding the rifle on the left does not convince the defense either. “He is not in a firing position and uses his right hand to take the jewelry from the windows,” observes Me Hentz. The expertise of the voices is not convincing either. Impossible to determine if the few words perceived are pronounced by Ramzi Khachroub.

The DNA fingerprint on the bleach canister that was used to clean up any traces on the stolen Yamaha T-Max is more embarrassing. "There is also the DNA of J., a young man from Les Moulins, on the scooter tank cap. Why would he be less suspicious than my client?", is surprised Me Hentz.

"J., he provided a coherent explanation contrary to the rather special behavior of Mr. Khachroub", replies the investigator.

Ramzi Khachroub was walled in silence as soon as he was arrested.

"The classic behavior of a thug", comments the policeman.

The accused then gives the unfortunate impression of fabricating alibis to demonstrate that on the morning of the robbery, he did not leave Carros. Is that enough to make him guilty?

"A YOUNG HAPPENED BY THE STREET"

Ramzi Khachroub refused any psychological and psychiatric expertise. It is therefore necessary to rely on the personality investigator who details his biography to try to identify him: "A sporty-looking boy, quite sure of himself, of French nationality, third in a family of six boys born of Tunisian parents." If the accused evokes "a happy childhood in a close-knit family", the social workers of Carros are more reserved. They criticize in particular the behavior of a father "whose speech does not facilitate the integration of the rules for his children".

"He is the most discreet, the most reserved of my sons, according to his mother, who describes him as gentle and affectionate," notes the investigator.

An average student who is not very diligent, his chaotic schooling is marked by a behavior problem. "He gets hit by the street", according to the expression of the witness.

In a relationship with Kelly for three years, the young man seems idle even if he vaguely plans to join the army. Known for petty crime, "it's a gun carrier who lets himself be taken on board, not a leader", puts a gendarme from Carros into perspective.

"With his family, his image is irreproachable. It is more contrasted when we question the external speakers", continues the personality investigator. Advocate General Clotilde Galy is surprised by the deposition of Ramzi's uncle, which she quotes in full:

"He's never been aggressive, he's not a thief. You don't become one overnight. If I had the slightest doubt, I wouldn't set foot in my brother's house." The magistrate observes that Ramzi has been convicted in the past for a robbery with violence in a meeting. And his name appears in multiple procedures without the juvenile justice being seized.

The general counsel, charged at the end of the trial with requesting a sentence, is surprised that her family never mentions this tumultuous adolescence in front of the investigator.

"UNCREDITABLE STATEMENTS"

Ramzi Khachroub claims that on the day of the incident, he was sleeping with his girlfriend Kelly in Carros. He got up around 9:30 a.m. At 10 o'clock, he would have gone to the driving school then to Mathilde, a friend. Kelly says it upfront on the stand: "He was with me. He's innocent." President Benoît Delaunay is surprised: "During your first audition, you didn't remember. Then you gave a lot of details during your second audition…"

Another curiosity: the same girl had said that Ramzi did not have a cell phone. Before providing an itemized bill to demonstrate that at 10:25 a.m. on the fateful day, she had called him.

Mathilde, a friend of the couple, asserts in turn with great assurance that Kelly and her friend Ramzi were at her house at the end of the morning on September 11. Again, the witness provides astonishing details but at the second hearing. Advocate General Clotilde Galy tells her as she thinks: "Your statements do not seem credible."

The manager of the driving school cannot confirm the Khachroub's alibi.

Mohamed, the defendant's childhood friend, is more affirmative: "Ramzi has nothing to do with this case." Question from a juror: "Is Ramzi left-handed or right-handed?" “Left-handed” replies the witness without hesitation, while since Monday relatives have said that he is right-handed or ambidextrous.

"MY MOTHER IS MYTHOMANE"

Vanessa, witness for the prosecution, puts a stone in the garden of the defense: "In a kebab, (note: almost in front of the jewelry store) I saw the two young men a day or two before the incident. The young man in the box had a butt in his back that stuck out from his pants." The president suggests, "Look at it." "It was indeed him at the kebab… confirms the witness. That does not mean that it was the young man who was at the robbery. At the time, I saw the photo of young Asli in Nice-Matin and I I called the municipal police."

Me Frédéric Hentz, the defense lawyer, underlines Vanessa's contradictions, evokes "a story to sleep tall, a hodgepodge." The witness's own daughter is incredulous: "My mother is sick, she is a mythomaniac, she tells herself stories."

Between the failing memory of some, others who flee justice to avoid testifying, it is difficult to see clearly.

THE JEWELER: "BE ME BE HIM"

In choppy French, Stephan Turk, a solid sixty-something, tie and brown suit, severe mustache, tried to describe his attack in front of the jurors, anticipating the trial awaiting him, next year, to answer for intentional homicide.

"Both hit me. One kicked my heart, he tried to kill me, luckily I didn't die," he says.

"At the exit, I take the gun to recover my belongings" (a booty of 124,000 euros never found).

On the video images of his shop, we see him, weapon in hand, squatting, suspicious, and passing under the metal curtain in the wake of the robbers. "It's either him or me," he comments about the young man he shot.

Antony Asli, 19 (and not 17 as stated in the order for reference), died of a bullet to the shoulder blade.

The jeweler pleads self-defense, he who fled the war in Lebanon and went into exile in Nice in the 1980s to protect his family.

"In two minutes, two individuals have ruined eighteen years of work", notes Me Djendel Yassen, one of his lawyers.

"RECULE BOUBOULE"

Me Franck De Vita often defended robbers in the 1990s. The criminal lawyer from Nice, adviser to Stephan Turk, finds himself this time on the side of the victims, on the bench of the civil party. Since September 11, 2013, the date of the attack on the La Turquoise jewelry store, rue d'Angleterre in Nice, he has accompanied the jeweler in an endless legal process.

Thursday afternoon, the criminal lawyer from Nice points his index finger at the television of the Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes: "We had the chance to see a film of impressive quality. In color, with sound . The two robbers didn't just destroy a man."

Everyone has in mind the clink of broken glass, the kicking of Stephan Turk, the orders of the two helmeted and armed men: "Stand back Bouboule, thunder Me De Vita, citing the criminals. Open the trunk! And we hit Bouboule, we hit Bouboule! We hit!" Unheard-of, gratuitous, unbearable violence, typical of a new generation of criminals. "Unbearable", indignantly the lawyer for the civil party, anticipating the second legal act that this 69-year-old man will have to undergo.

Me Djendel Yassen insists in turn on the repercussions of this armed attack: "It's a story of terrible violence. An absolute mess. These jewels, Mr. Turk did not find them in 2 minutes 43, it is the fruit of thirty years of work."

Refugee from Lebanon, married, father of five children, the jeweler started from nothing when he settled in Nice. "The robbery has destroyed everything he has built, underlines Me Yassen. And young people have wasted the best years of their lives."

MR. TURK'S DOUBTS

Who was the second man? The question has been bothering the court and the jurors for three days. "Stephan Turk always said that he could not recognize the defendant, helmeted, hooded, because Mr. Turk is a fair and honest man", underlines Me De Vita. No question for the civil party to replace the general counsel responsible for requesting a sentence this Friday morning. On the other hand, the lawyers of the civil part do not hesitate to relay the doubts of their client. "At the end of the proceedings, Mr. Turk may think that Ramzi Khachroum left hastily for Tunisia the day after the robbery. He may think that he has a connection with the stolen T-Max scooter. He may think that he did not there is no alibi this morning of September 11..."

The absence of an explanation from the accused about the presence of his DNA on the can of bleach which was used to erase all traces on the scooter is "boring", notes the lawyer, in an understatement.

"Stephan Turk did not ask anything of anyone, recalls Me De Vita at the end of the argument. He is now called "The jeweler of Nice", hated, threatened, described as a murderer. Adored by others who are just as excessive. But he didn't ask for this life. He didn't want all that!"

In the box, Ramzi Khachroum, who has always said he is innocent, remains unmoved.

The Court has delivered its verdict. The accused was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Photos: Franck Fernandes, Jean-François Ottonello, Cyril Dodergny