The First Section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced a man who caused a fire in a building to 22 years in prison in which a three-year-old boy died and the mother and two brothers of that minor were injured.
The sentence, handed down based on the guilty verdict issued by a popular jury on July 6, declares the defendant the author of a crime of arson with danger to the life and integrity of people in ideal competition with a crime of homicide and three crimes of injuries.
The convicted person must now pay compensation for a total amount close to 375,000 euros for the death of the child and the injuries and sequelae suffered by the rest of the victims.
The magistrate who presided over this trial ruled out imposing a reviewable permanent prison sentence, as requested by the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution, considering that the prisoner committed a crime of homicide and not murder, as both parties maintained, by causing the death of the minor.
The events, as the jury declared, occurred on December 10, 2020, when the defendant traveled from the Murcian town of San Javier to Valencia and went to the five-story building in the La Malvarrosa neighborhood where he thought his ex-partner was still living, who had, however, previously moved to another town.
When he was unable to see her or speak to her, around 7:00 p.m., “determined to take revenge” on his ex-partner -as stated in the sentence- he entered the farm, went up to the fourth floor and set fire to a sofa, some furniture and some belongings that were piled up next to the door of the apartment where he believed she continued to reside.
This action caused a large fire and generated significant smoke that reached the top floor of the building, where a woman lived with her three minor children.
This neighbor tried to get to safety with the children – three, seven and nine years old, respectively – going down the stairs to the fourth floor, but she could not continue because of the smoke and flames.
The youngest of the children died of suffocation from smoke inhalation, while his mother and two brothers were injured by the poisoning itself and by burns.
