His conclusions largely matched those of Dr. Maurice: the death was caused by strangulation, with additional violent blows to the head by a blunt object while the victim was asleep, who was then butchered. A few days after the discovery the victim was identified: he was a 75-year-old man named Duguet, a farmer from Longperrier. The victim's white horse and cart were found; the former had been sold for four hundred francs to a man named Juquin, and the latter had been sold for forty francs to a cartwright-locksmith by a certain Jean Charles, a fodder merchant who lived in the city of Chasseurs. The investigators went to the address and discovered the man described by the witness, who was seen with Duguet. Avinain tried to escape through the sewers, but was captured at the exit by police. The searches then commenced. In Levallois-Perret, there were traces of blood and fodder belonging to Duguet were found. Despite the overwhelming evidence, Avinain denied his guilt, confusing magistrate Henriquez. The authorities promised him imperial grace only if he acknowledged his crimes, and he finally confessed. On October 2, 1867, Avinain appeared before the cour d'assises of Seine, wearing a black frock coat and a white shirt plastron. He was defended by Master Massoni. At the hearing on October 26, 1867, the Advocate General wrote to the jury: ""If there were any of those humanitarian philosophers in this room who doubted the efficacy of the death penalty, I ask them to look at the man who is struggling at this bench, this man to attaches all his hope to perpetual punishment and exhausts himself in vain efforts to obtain a sentence that leaves him alive. May this terrible villain be treated without pity. I declare loudly that I intend to claim my share of responsibility in the inflexible verdict that you will make"". The president of the cour d'assises, Councilor Charles Berriat-Saint-Prix made the following statement: ""Gentlemen jurors...I can not let you believe that, even if you dismiss the premeditation, Avinain would not incur death. Know indeed that under the terms of article 304 of the Penal Code, the murder carries the supreme punishment, when it had for object (...) to prepare, facilitate or execution of a simple crime, for example that of flight"". But the prosecutor and the President of the cour d'assises drew attention to the "incurable perversity of the condemned and the atrocity of his crimes".