Trial of the Ambrières breeder: five years in prison, one of which is under electronic bracelet

At the end of four days of trial, the Reims Assize Court sentenced Jean-Louis Leroux, a 53-year-old cattle breeder, to a five-year prison sentence, including one spent under an electronic bracelet, for “violence with a weapon leading to mutilation”. The farmer from Ambrières (Marne) opened fire on three men who came to rob him, injuring one of them, in 2020. The affair aroused indignation in the agricultural world, which had organized a march in Reims in support of the farmer.

A man seriously injured by the shooting

On the night of January 31 to February 1, 2020, Jean-Louis Leroux surprised three men who came to his farm in Ambrières to siphon diesel from several of his tractors. He then turns on a spotlight and tells them to stop. The individuals, fleeing, head in his direction. The breeder fired two shots, one of which wounded Diego H., one of the suspected thieves, in the stomach. “I wanted to stop them, I just wanted it (the thefts) to stop,” he said during the hearing.

The man who owns more than 350 beef cows and 225 hectares of agricultural land had already been the victim of numerous thefts since 2015, for which he filed complaints 17 times with the local gendarmerie, without any success. In 2020, a few weeks before that night of February 1, he had invested in a video surveillance system worth nearly 10,000 euros. A mechanism that was activated when the three thieves arrived.

He acted “because of fear”

Diego H., aged 19 at the time of the incident, was seriously injured. Placed in an artificial coma for a month, his vital prognosis was poor for a while. According to his lawyer, Maître Arthur de la Roche, his injuries left him with extremely serious after-effects. Asked about his intentions, the 53-year-old man who appeared free during the trial – he was under judicial supervision after spending a few days in pre-trial detention at the start of the case – denies having wanted to kill the thief. “I admit to having shot in his direction, because of fear, but I am very sorry for what happened to the young man,” he regretted.

This Thursday, September 24, the Assize Court rendered its decision after five hours of deliberation in a tense climate, with many people coming to support the fiftieth anniversary. The court ruled that the breeder had fired several times without trying to target a vital area. She rejected the theory of self-defense while retaining an alteration of discernment at the time of the facts.

The breeder was not found guilty of attempted murder – he thus avoided a sentence of up to 30 years in prison – but of “violence with a weapon leading to mutilation”. He received five years in prison, four of which were suspended and one year under an electronic bracelet, a sentence in accordance with the requisitions of the attorney general.

Also prosecuted during the hearing, the three thieves admitted the acts of gang theft. The Reims Assize Court sentenced Diego H. to two months' suspended prison sentence, while his two co-defendants received four and ten months' suspended sentences.