Real name: Bertrand Cantat

Effective period / Period of releases: 2004 - 2017

Bertrand Lucien Bruno Cantat ( born 5 March 1964) is a French songwriter, singer, and musician known for being the former frontman of the rock band Noir Désir. He is also a convicted murderer. In 2003, he was proven guilty without a doubt and convicted of the murder ("murder with indirect intent" – dolus eventualis) of French actress Marie Trintignant, which occurred in a hotel room in Vilnius. To some controversy, Cantat returned to Noir Désir after his release from prison in 2007, playing with the group until it disbanded in 2010. He subsequently formed a musical duo with Pascal Humbert, calling themselves Détroit.
In 2003, Cantat began an affair with French actress Marie Trintignant. On 26 July of that year, Cantat and Trintignant got in a fight in a hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania, following a dispute over a text message. Seven hours later, Trintignant's brother called emergency services to the couple's Vilnius hotel room, as Trintignant had slipped into a deep coma. She died of swelling to the brain several days later in hospital.[6] The post-mortem examination suggested that Cantat had inflicted 19 blows to Trintignant's head, causing irreversible brain damage. In court, Cantat claimed he "slapped" Trintignant four times before putting her to bed. He claimed he had flown into a jealous rage after she received a text message from her husband, Samuel Benchetrit.[9] Trintignant was 41 at the time of her death, and left four young sons. French medical experts at the hearing confirmed Cantat's claim regarding the slapping, as well as his claim that he could not tell that Trintignant was dying.[citation needed] His house was burned down in Moustey. His spouse and his two children initially were supposed to be in the house at that time, but were in Bordeaux, instead.
In March 2004, Cantat was sentenced by Vilnius Regional Court under Article 129 of the Lithuanian Criminal Code to eight years in prison for murder, committed with indirect intent (dolus eventualis).[citation needed] The verdict was at first appealed by Marie Trintignant's family, who believed that her killing warranted a harsher sentence, and later by Cantat, who wanted the higher court to reclassify his crime as manslaughter, and therefore lessen his sentence. Both parties ultimately decided to cancel their appeals, which rendered final the original sentence of eight years. At the request of his lawyers, Cantat was moved from the Lithuanian Lukiškės prison, to a prison near Muret, France, in September 2004. Cantat served four years of his eight-year sentence in prison.[citation needed] According to French law, after half of a prison sentence has been served, a criminal with good behavior can be released to serve the rest of his sentence on parole.