The cour d’assises de Fort-de-France, the criminal assize court of the island’s capital, sentenced Joachim Henry to 25 years of réclusion criminelle on Friday 6 November 2026 after finding him guilty of assassinat, murder with premeditation.[1] The court imposed a security period of two-thirds of the term and a permanent ban from French territory.[1] The court followed the submissions of the advocate-general, the prosecution’s senior representative at the trial.[1]

The victim was Jean-Mathieu R., a 23-year-old from Le Lamentin, who was shot twice in the head and died at the scene.[1] Henry, a 39-year-old Saint Lucian, had fired several times at him on 26 December 2019 on the chemin de l’Anse-Moustique in Sainte-Anne, in the south of Martinique.[1]

He had already been convicted of trafficking cannabis between Sainte-Lucie (Saint Lucia) and Martinique.[1] Henry told the court that a dispute over drug trafficking had set the two men against each other, and he acknowledged having killed the man he considered a friend.[1] He denied that the killing was premeditated.[1]

Henry had been on trial before the same court since Thursday 5 November, and the prosecution began its case on Wednesday 4 November.[2] The law reports give the scene of the shooting as both the chemin de l’Anse-Moustique and the Anse Meunier in Sainte-Anne.[2] A psychological expert told the court that he had grown up in a deprived neighbourhood of Castries, Saint Lucia’s capital, where illegal livelihoods were normalised.[2] The trial was to run until Friday 6 November, and the court had to rule on the circumstances of the killing and on the accused’s criminal responsibility.[3]