Stern trial ends with guilty verdict
The ex-mistress of one of France's richest men was convicted of murder in a Geneva court on Wednesday for shooting him during a sex game.
Cécile Brossard faces up to 20 years in prison for firing four bullets into banker Edouard Stern, who died in 2005. A 12-member jury rejected defence claims that the murder was a crime of passion, punishable by ten years in jail.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 11 years on Thursday morning. A sentence is expected before the weekend.
The case caused a whirlwind of media attention for its sensational, often lurid revelations. Stern, 50, and Brossard, now 40, were having an affair when he was killed wearing a latex suit and tied to a chair in a submissive position during a sex game.
Stern, who amassed a fortune worth several hundred million dollars as a prominent banker, had promised to give Brossard $1 million (SFr1.08 million) and to marry her. Neither happened as she’d hoped. When Stern insulted her during the game she went “like a robot” to retrieve a gun out of a drawer, she told the court.
Prosecutors successfully argued that the French woman shot Stern “out of hate” and that “the money was the reason for his death”.
Brossard expressed remorse before deliberations and asked Stern’s former wife and children to forgive her.
“I am not a thief. I am not poisonous,” she said. “I am just desperately in love with a man and I will be forever.”
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