A witness has confirmed in the trial of the accused of killing a man with a shot in the back of the head in Sant Pere Pescador (Alt Empordà) on June 26, 2002 that the victim was a friend of the accused’s then partner and that he came to the house after receiving a call from the woman asking for help because the defendant was “very aggressive.”
The call was shortly after six in the morning and, as the victim’s partner explained, the man dressed in a mess and went out quickly to help the woman. She never came home. The woman explained that she tried to contact him and, finally, she decided to go to Sant Pere Pescador, where she found the man’s lifeless body: “She was convinced that he had also killed her.”
This Monday the trial, which is being held with a popular jury, in the fourth section of the Girona Court, of the accused of the murder of Sant Pere Pescador resumed with the statements of the witnesses.
On Friday, the defendant acknowledged the facts and admitted that he fired a shot in the back of the victim’s head and that he could not defend himself because he immobilized him during the confrontation. Prosecutor Víctor Pillado accuses him of murder and illegal possession of weapons and initially asks for 22 years in prison.
In the courtroom, the victim’s partner testified, explaining that he and the defendant were “acquaintances” and that he had seen him a couple of times before the crime. According to his story, the victim had a friendly relationship with the defendant’s then partner, who lived in the house in Sant Pere Pescador where the events occurred.
Days before June 26, 2002, the accused’s partner said that she wanted to leave the relationship with him and that he was “violent”: “Yes, I was afraid, but it is normal to be afraid of this man.” Therefore, she asked his friend, who lived in Albons, to help her change the lock of the house to prevent the accused from entering. He did so. In addition, he also told her that if the defendant appeared, he would notify her and he would go help her.
The victim’s partner reported that he and the victim were sleeping at their house in Albons when the phone rang early in the morning, shortly after six. “I picked it up and it was her, very nervous, asking to speak to my partner,” he said. She handed him the phone and the victim explained that he was the defendant at her house and that he was “very aggressive.” The man dressed quickly and ran and left in the direction of Sant Pere Pescador.
As reconstructed by the public prosecution with other witnesses who testified, the accused had asked an acquaintance for the car to go, that morning, from Llinars del Vallés to Sant Pere Pesador. After firing the fatal shot at the victim, he put his son and the woman in the car and fled in the direction of Barcelona. However, on the AP-7 he ran out of gas near Medinyà.
Then, he called an acquaintance asking him to come pick him up. He refused because he couldn’t leave his children alone at home. The man collapsed and evaded justice in this case for seventeen years, until authorities were able to determine that a man who was in prison in France for a murder was, in fact, the suspect in the Sant Pere Pescador crime. To escape the action of justice, he had used false identities. They have not been able to locate the woman who was his partner at the time.
The vehicle he used to go to Sant Pere Pescador and then flee was left abandoned on the shoulder of the highway.
The trial will continue tomorrow in the Girona Court with the testimony of the Mossos d’Esquadra investigators and the experts.
According to the script, the conclusions and reports are scheduled to be formulated on Wednesday and, afterwards, the subject of the verdict will be delivered to the popular jury, which will retire to deliberate.
