There was no rectification or change of criteria. This Monday, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence of 34 years in prison imposed on a couple who deceived, kidnapped, tortured, robbed and buried alive in the area of Pedrola (Zaragoza province) a Basque businessman after the woman entered into I contacted him through the Badoo social network in September 2019.
In its ruling, the Criminal Chamber fully rejects the appeals of both convicted -Mohamed Achraf Elbouti, now 39 years old, and Angelin Candy, 38- against the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA), which in turn had ratified the one issued by the Provincial Court of Zaragoza after the trial that was held by jury.
The proven facts detail that the defendant, a native of Venezuela and whose full name is Hedangelin Candy Arrieta Landazábal, contacted the victim, José Antonio Delgado Fresnedo, a 54-year-old businessman residing in Getxo (Vizcaya) through Badoo, and summoned him to maintain an appointment on September 6, 2019 in Zaragoza, where she lived with her partner.
The victim attended the appointment and, already in the company of the woman, they traveled in their own car to an industrial estate in the vicinity of Pedrola, half an hour from the capital Zaragoza, where they were supposedly going to have sex in a secluded place. When the man was already confident, the woman's accomplice -and partner- appeared unexpectedly, reduced him and immobilized him with zip ties inside an abandoned warehouse of the complex.
It was the beginning of his slow ordeal. According to the proven facts, "the defendants seized his belongings, savagely beat him and intimidated him to get the codes of his bank cards", with which they made up to six withdrawals between September 7 and 11.
In the first days of kidnapping and without any defense, the man received blows to the head and chest with a blunt object, "compatible with a slow death," the text reads.
On the 8th, the convicts proceeded to strip the man naked and buried him alive, "but in a more than probable borderline state of agony, dying in the grave where he had been buried," the ruling states. The corpse had dust in the nose, trachea and esophagus, which indicates that he was still breathing when he was buried, according to details of the investigators after finding the body.
In addition to withdrawing the money with their faces covered, the now convicted sold the Mercedes vehicle with which the victim had arrived at the appointment to a Zaragoza resident over the internet. But the key to locating the body was given by Achraf Elbouti himself, a native of Tangier: when he committed the murder, he was wearing a telematic bracelet for having committed a crime of gender violence.
For this reason, as soon as it entered the radar of the Civil Guard agents as a suspect, they tracked the device and were able to verify that the night of the disappearance it had spent more than two hours at a specific point in the Pedrola industrial estate. It was right there, two meters underground, where they later found José Antonio Delgado along with various genetic remains left by the criminal couple.
In total, each member of the couple has been sentenced to 25 years for the murder, another 6 for robbery and kidnapping and another three for the fraud of having sold the Mercedes vehicle. In addition, they must jointly pay compensation of 185,000 euros to the victim's son, 50,000 to his parents and 19,000 to his siblings, as well as 11,000 to the person affected by the scam.
