A French woman who confessed to killing banker Edouard Stern after they had sado-masochistic sex and argued over $1 million was found guilty today of murder, rather than the lesser charge of a crime of passion.
Judge Alessandra Cambi read out the verdict reached by the Geneva jury of six women and six men after a one-week trial that revealed sordid details of the relationship between the artist and Mr Stern, one of the richest men in France.
The jury's statement said that Cecile Brossard "acted with a certain determination" in killing her long-time lover and then cleaning up evidence of the crime and fleeing the country, checking her bank balance between flights.
"Her state of despair was not excusable," the jury said, rejecting calls from Brossard's lawyers to consider the death a crime of passion, which carries a shorter prison term.
Earlier today, the 40-year-old defendant apologised to Mr Stern's family in the packed courtroom, where Mr Stern's ex-wife and Brossard's sister Delphine looked on. "I am not a thief," she said. "I am a woman still madly in love."
Mr Stern (50) was found dead in his Geneva luxury flat in March 2005. Four bullet wounds pierced the head-to-toe flesh-coloured latex outfit he wore from the night before.
Sex toys littered his bedroom full of millions of dollars worth of antiques. Brossard admitted to having cleaned up the crime scene and thrown the murder weapon into Lake Geneva.
The 38th richest man in France, Mr Stern counted President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist politician Laurent Fabius among his friends. He was once heir apparent to his father-in-law, Michel David-Weill of the investment bank Lazard Freres.
Court papers show Brossard confessed to having killed Mr Stern with his own revolver following an argument over $1 million he put into her Swiss account, funds she had demanded as "proof of his love for her".
He blocked the money after she refused to return it.
The jury noted in its verdict that Brossard had called her banker regarding the $1 million between flights as she fled first to Italy and then to Australia.
The Stern family lawyer Marc Bonnant had said in his plea yesterday for a murder conviction: "The million is the cause of everything. She killed him when he wanted to get back the million and at no other moment in their relationship."
Geneva chief prosecutor Daniel Zappelli, in his summary, said: "If there is passion in this case, it is that of money. It was not love that killed, but hate and money."
Brossard is due to be sentenced tomorrow afternoon, and faces up to 20 years in jail for murder. She has already spent four years in preventive custody.
Defence lawyers Pascal Maurer and Alec Reymond portrayed Brossard as a victim of a tormented relationship dominated by the manipulative Mr Stern. It was fuelled by an explosive mix of kinky sex and his alleged promises to marry her, they argued.
Brossard said that she shot Mr Stern after he told her: "One million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a whore."
"When I heard that, I understood that I would never be his wife. I wanted to carry his name, it was a little girl's dream. My head, my heart imploded," Brossard testified, telling how she fired the first shot between the eyes of her lover.
Reuters