Sandra Palo was assaulted by three minors (14, 17 and 17) and an adult (18). They raped her, tortured her, and then burned her alive. It was four against one. Doesn't this numerical disproportion and contempt for the pain of others sound familiar to you? 20 years have passed since these terrible events. At that time, cases like Sandra's were not discussed in these terms, but as the gang of Rafita, Ramón, Ramoncín and Malaguita are fully evident, they were a herd.
The lawyer Emilia Zaballos defended one of the minors accused of the brutal crime, specifically Ramón Santiago Jiménez, Ramón, who was 17 years old at the time. The trial of the three rapists who had not reached the age of majority at the time of the events, that is, on May 17, 2003, took place that same year in October. The only adult, the Malaguita, Francisco Javier Astorga Luque, on whom most of the criminal initiative was unloaded, was tried later, in 2005, and sentenced to 64 years in prison, which the Supreme Court ended up confirming years later. He is the only one still locked up.
“We make names fashionable. The word 'herd' was not used then, which is not to say that 20 years ago events identical to those that occur today did not occur. It happens that currently, the victims are less afraid to tell it and the media echoes the facts more”, says this lawyer.
Zaballos's client, who had been strutting around the places he used to frequent for days with information about what had happened to that girl who was reported on television, was the first to be arrested.
"He lived his moment of glory during the statement taking and told everything with hair and signs," recalls Zaballos. Ramón was surrounded by people who, although it may seem contradictory, were for him, they paid attention to him and that made him feel important and he sang flat out.
"In these events, what is called the force of the group acts: even if there is a more benevolent member, he ends up dragged by the rest," explains the lawyer. These are those moments when the weakest elements of the pack are subjected to reproaches, insults, and accusations of cowardice that, unfortunately, usually end in criminal solidarity, especially if, as it seems in this case, the adult played a certain role. of leadership.
When Ramón finished the appearance in which he gave the names of his accomplices, something shocking happened. When they handed him the text of the statement and after he had not shown any change in spirits, the detainee began to cry. "It's just that I don't know how to read," he lamented. His lawyer confirms it: "I had to ask the judge to let me read it to him so that he could ratify it."
And what counted there, more or less, was what follows.
It was the early morning of May 17, 2003, around 2:30 a.m. The four rapists were traveling in a car stolen by the M-30. They saw Sandra Palo, 22, and her boyfriend on the shoulder. They were returning from a disco. They had spent more time there than the girl's parents would have liked because that same day, hours later, her brother's communion was celebrated. When she finally returned home, Rafita, Ramón, Ramoncín and Malaguita decided to rob the couple and rape Sandra, who had a slight intellectual disability.
They put them in the car at knifepoint, but they soon got rid of it and took the girl to a field.
They took her out of the car and repeatedly raped her. They took turns holding her. After her, they rammed her with their car against an adjoining wall and, after falling from her, they ran her car over her eight or ten times.
As she was still alive despite everything, they went to buy a euro of gasoline and set it on fire again.
The three minors were sentenced: 14-year-old Rafita, Rafael García Fernández, to four years of internment and another three of probation; to Ramoncín, Ramón Manzano Manzano; and Ramón Santiago Jiménez, to eight years of internment and another five of probation. Between 2010 and 2012, they were released.
Since they took to the streets, to a greater or lesser degree, they have been involved in crimes and have been arrested on several occasions. The most publicized of them, Rafita, accumulates more than 30 arrests and has spent at least twice in prison.
The lawyer who defended Ramón is in favor of a modification of the Minors' Law and, in addition, she advocates -actively from the Zaballos Foundation that she presides- for a social change, beyond the legislative reforms.
“You have to toughen the law for minors in regards to the most serious crimes, such as the case of packs. In addition, the authors' re-education objectives are not achieved. Much more constant and close monitoring would have to be done when they are released on probation”, says the lawyer. "Age is something administrative, it would also be necessary to take into account the degree of maturity of the individual", she adds.
Emilia Zeballos considers that the great forgotten of these crimes are the victims, including the collaterals, such as the parents of Sandra Palo who never received any compensation because the convicted were insolvent. For the lawyer, her protection and accompaniment should be part of these legal changes to which many aspire.
"Nothing justifies the behavior they had and they are responsible, let it be very clear, but both in this and in other cases, we failed in prevention, in reintegration and clearly in sheltering the victims," concludes Zaballos.
