The Supreme Court has confirmed the 17-year prison sentences imposed on two accused of murdering Daniel Menjíbar, a former contestant on the program "Mujeres y Hombres y viceversa", in the early morning of July 11, 2020, after chasing him through an area of leisure in Torrent (Valencia).
The Criminal Chamber has dismissed the appeals of Francisco H. and Antonio M. against the sentence of the Provincial Court of Valencia that convicted them after a jury found them guilty of the murder.
They were not the only ones arrested for the crime. The sentence declared it proven that they acted together with two minors, who were tried in a separate proceeding.
It happened at dawn on July 11, 2020, when the four of them met the 31-year-old victim in an area of bars in the Valencian town of Torrent.
"They exchanged a few words," the sentence that sentenced them considered accredited, which did not clarify the origin of the discussion and only specified that, an hour later, when the victim told one of the minors "that if they were not together they were not so brave", he punched him and Francisco H. began to push him.
After unsuccessfully trying to calm them down, the victim began to run during a chase in which he was beaten until he fell, a circumstance that did not prevent them from continuing to attack him.
He managed to get up, according to the account of the Court of Valencia, but, after a second chase, Francisco H. and his companions immobilized him and, knowing that they were carrying knives and "with the intention of ending" his life, "they stabbed him twice" , one of them in the heart, which caused his death.
The sentence, endorsed by the Valencian Superior Court of Justice and now by the Supreme Court, accredited that they took advantage of their "helplessness" situation due to the "affectation of their psychophysical faculties" caused by the consumption of "alcohol and cocaine", of their " numerical superiority" and that "the attack with the knives came as a surprise".
After the crime, the agents found the knives, "previously cleaned", hidden among some bushes.
The Supreme Court has endorsed the motivation of the sentence that convicted the two adults for the crime of murder, of which their "evidential baggage" stands out, and recalls that a witness saw how the victim tried to flee the place and finally fell to the ground .
It has rejected all the arguments of the two convicted, of which, at times, it stands out as their lack of foundation, and reminds them that the mission of this court is not to re-examine the evidence that the jury that found them guilty took into account, but rather "verify the rationality in the motivation" of the sentence, which it supports.
