The Bizkaia Court has sentenced the man accused of trying to kill another man with whom he contacted through a dating application for homosexual men in 2021 to 7 and a half years in prison. The court considers the defendant the author of a crime of attempted murder. homicide and rejects his "exculpatory" version during the trial.
The ruling of the Second Section of the Bizkaia Court, dated November 13 and notified this Thursday to the parties, also establishes, in addition to the prison sentence, the prohibition of the defendant from approaching the victim, his home. or to any other place where it is located, at a distance of less than 500 meters and to communicate with it by any means for 8 and a half years.
In terms of civil liability, the Biscayan Court sets compensation of 10,800 euros for the injuries, consequences and moral damages caused to the victim. The court also agrees to keep the defendant in provisional prison until this sentence is final, since there is the possibility of filing an appeal before the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country.
The trial was held last October and the accused was imprisoned in May 2022, after being arrested in Irún (Gipuzkoa) when he voluntarily appeared at an Ertzaintza police station, after learning that he was suspected of having killed the lives of several men whom he knew through a network of contacts.
During the course of the trial, it was announced that the Ertzaintza linked the defendant with up to seven homicides and another two attempted homicides, all of them with the theft of bank cards for the subsequent extraction of the victims' money as a motive.
The Bizkaia Court declares it proven that the accused contacted the victim through a contact application and that they had a first date on December 15, 2021, arranging to meet another time.
Two days later, on December 17, both met again at the victim's house and, while they were on the couch, the accused "unexpectedly" and "guided with the intention of ending the life" of the other man " tried to suffocate him on two occasions."
However, the victim managed to get away, get to the front door of the house and ask for help, but the accused caught up with him and hit him "repeatedly and strongly" on the head with a figure, and later left the place, leaving the Bring your backpack and jacket with your documentation.
In the judicial resolution, it is indicated that the accused presented, on the date of the events, an "antisocial personality disorder associated with abusive consumption of toxic substances with relevance to even slightly affect his volitional faculties."
The Court of Bizkaia has assessed the victim's statement in sentencing the defendant, which has been "clear", "unambiguous", "absent of contradictions and precise from the first moment".
Likewise, the ruling indicates that the victim's story has turned out to be "more logical and coherent" than the "exculpatory version" offered by the accused at trial, which, according to the Court, is "hardly credible." Specifically, he assured, during the trial, that it was "an impulse" to "stun" the victim, but he did not want to "hurt him, much less kill him."
The judicial resolution also indicates that the victim's story is supported by "abundant objective evidence that constitutes peripheral corroboration and provides it with consistency and veracity."
Regarding the purpose of the accused's conduct, the Chamber considers that the actions taken by him were "potentially likely to have caused the death of the victim."
The Court does not appreciate that there is treachery to classify the act as murder because "it is evident that the victim was not unable to defend himself." It also rejects the aggravating circumstance requested by the popular accusation of having committed the act with discriminatory motivation due to the sexual orientation or identity of the victim.
"Neither from the dynamics of the commission, nor from the circumstances before and after the events, is there any information indicative that the accused acted guided by said intolerable discriminatory spirit," adds the court.
The Chamber does apply, in this case, the aggravating circumstance of taking advantage in the execution of the act of the circumstances of place and time that "weakened the victim's defense." It also appreciates the mitigating circumstance of psychological anomaly, as it is proven that on the date of the events the defendant had an "antisocial personality disorder associated with abusive consumption of toxic substances."
The Chamber clarifies that it has not taken into account for this sentence the police investigations that are being carried out against the accused as "a suspect regarding other episodes of an indicative criminal nature with apparent similarities in the dynamics of the commission", as there is no evidence that there has been a "firm final resolution in any of the legal cases brought" against him.
