Nicolás Zepeda was sentenced in France to 28 years in prison for the murder of his Japanese ex-girlfriend Narumi Kurosaki. The young Chilean denied having committed the crime throughout the trial, despite the evidence against him and the pressure from the prosecution and private accusations for him to confess.
The prosecution had requested a life sentence. Finally, the jury of the court of justice of Besanzón, in the east of France, has ruled 28 years of criminal imprisonment for Nicolás Zepeda, recognizing the Chilean as guilty of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki. A sentence that includes a "definitive ban" on entering French territory and carrying weapons, Judge Matthieu Husson said.
When the verdict of the nine-member jury was announced after four hours of deliberation, Zepeda, dressed in a blue shirt and dark tie, stood impassively in the dock, his face tired.
A jealous and possessive ex-boyfriend
Nicolás Zepeda and Narumi Kurosaki met in Japan in the fall of 2014 and a few months later they began a romantic relationship, marked by "breakups and reconciliations," according to the victim's mother, Taeko Kurosaki, during the trial.
At the end of August 2016, the Japanese moved to Besançon to study French, after having obtained a scholarship. Two months later, her relationship with Zepeda ended. A separation that Zepeda would have been unable to bear, according to the indictment. He spied on her through social networks and was especially jealous of the young Japanese girl's new boyfriend. In early December 2016, Zepeda decided to travel to France from Santiago de Chile.
According to the evidence provided by the prosecution, with video recordings, testimonies from Narumi Kurosaki's neighbors, thousands of phone messages and calls, Zepeda had planned the murder. The accusation indicates that he watched the residence of his ex-girlfriend for three days, to make a composition of what the place was like. In addition, he bought a can of gasoline, matches and a detergent.
On December 4, 2016, Nicolás Zepeda met up with Narumi Kurosaki and they went together to have dinner in a nearby town. After that, they returned to the university residence where the young woman was staying, where they spent nearly 30 hours together, until the Chilean left, at dawn on December 6 of the same year, leaving Narumi in perfect health, according to the defendant's version.
However, 11 students who occupied the rooms next to the young woman say they were woken up in the early hours of December 4 to 5 by women's high-pitched screams and beatings. However, no one notified the police.
According to the accusation, that night, the Chilean would have "asphyxiated" or "strangled" the young woman and then would have disposed of the body in a forest in the region or "had thrown her into the Doubs River", in the same area. The body was never found.
After that -the accusation maintains-, he would have hacked the social network accounts of his ex-girlfriend, sending messages to the young woman's relatives, making them believe that she was still alive and thus buying time before returning to Chile.
On Monday, Zepeda's defense, made up of lawyers Jacqueline Laffont and Julie Benedetti, urged the jury not to sentence their client "to the maximum penalty" and ruled out that the alleged crime was "premeditated." Claiming to be aware that this process has been "extremely painful", Laffont appealed to the jury to deliberate "leaving emotion aside".
On Tuesday morning, one of the lawyers for the civil party, Sylvie Galley, who represents the victim's family, lamented once again "the absence of confession and answers" by the Chilean, assuring that the family " I expected more."