The Girona Court has tried the accused of attempting to stab a young man to death in Olot on April 12, 2021. The prosecutor and the private prosecution accuse him of attempted homicide and request 9 and a half years in prison. The victim explained in court that she was with a friend of hers in Bufadors square when the defendant, whom she did not know at all, came up to talk to another young man. She doesn’t know what they said, but she does know that he saw his friend hit the defendant.
Then, and before he had time to get up, he stabbed him. According to the defendant’s version, he limited himself to defending himself against a group of “two or three” who began to beat him and denies that, when stabbing the victim, he acted with the intention of killing him.
The trial, which was held in the fourth section of the Girona Court, began with the victim’s statement. As he explained, she had only lived in Olot for about ten days and she did not know the defendant at all. Around 9:00 p.m. on the night of April 12, 2021, she was with a friend in Bufadors square “sitting on the ground looking at her cell phone.”
As detailed, the defendant approached his friend and told him something he did not understand. It was then that the other young man hit the defendant. The victim has stated that, while he was trying to get up, the man stabbed him in the abdomen. He has described the attack as fast, in a matter of “seconds” and has remarked that he did not have time to react.
After realizing the injury he had, he called for help. From here, he has specified that he only remembers a woman who covered his wound to try to stop the bleeding while the emergency teams arrived. The young man has denied that the attack was a battle or that he also hit the defendant.
The victim has reaffirmed that she has no doubt about the photographic identification made by the suspect: “When someone stabs you, you don’t forget it.” He has also stated that he has had both physical and mental consequences because he has had to undergo surgery seven times and he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the assault.
As reported at the time of the events, the police linked the suspect to two attacks with a knife that took place the same day in Olot. The first occurred a few hours earlier, around 6:30 p.m., and the victim suffered hand injuries. This man has also testified in the trial by videoconference and has assured that the knife is the same one that the defendant would have used for attempted murder.
The defendant has declared at the end of the trial and has only responded to the questions of his lawyer, Carles Monguilod. According to what he has said, that afternoon he was consuming alcohol, about seven or eight beers, and he seemed affected by the intake. The defendant has stated that the victim was part of a group of “two or three” young people who called his attention in the Bufador square to ask him for money. So, he has said, they began to beat him to rob him.
The defendant has denied that he had a knife on him and has assured that, as he fell to the ground, he instinctively moved his arm to defend himself and to repel the attack. According to his account, he never attacked anyone with the intent to kill. According to the forensic report, the stab wound endangered the victim’s life because she lost a liter and a half of blood and, without urgent medical attention, she could have suffered hemorrhagic shock.
The prosecutor’s office and the private prosecution, headed by lawyer Natàlia Frigola, accuse the defendant of attempted murder with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superiority and request 9 and a half years in prison. In the indictments they also state that the defendant has a previous sentence of 2 years of pressure for a crime of aggravated injuries.
Apart from the prison sentence, they also ask for 10 years of probation, that the defendant cannot approach less than 500 meters or communicate with the victim for 10 years and that they compensate him with 30,149 euros. In addition, the defendant is of Cuban origin and, in case of conviction, the accusations demand that he be expelled from the country with the prohibition to return for 10 years as soon as he completes three quarters of the sentence or accesses probation.
The defense denies the attempted murder and considers that the facts would be a crime of injuries with drunkenness mitigating, legitimate defense and repair of the damage, because it has consigned 3,000 euros to face the compensation. The trial has been seen for sentencing.
