The Mossos point to an "absurd" discussion about clothing as a motive in Masarac's crime

The investigation points to an “absurd discussion” over a domestic matter as the motive for the crime that occurred in a house in Masarac, in Alt Empordà (Girona) on the night of August 31, 2022.

During the second day of the trial, which is being held in the Girona Court with a popular jury, the head of the Mossos d’Esquadra investigation has stated that he has stressed that the witnesses and the emptying of the phones indicate that the accused and the The victim had a confrontation because the defendant could not find clothes that he had left in the room after the victim cleaned it. A dispute that was “escalating” hours before the stabbing.

The Mossos have “no doubt” about the authorship and also say that the scene indicated that the victim was unable to defend himself.

“An absurd argument about clothes” is, according to the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) of the Mossos d’Esquadra, the reason why the accused ended up fatally stabbing the victim in the house where they lived together.

In that address in Masarac, there lived at least a dozen people of sub-Saharan origin who, like the accused and the victim originally from Gambia, worked as seasonal workers during the grape harvest campaign.

The sub-inspector explained in the trial that, when the group specialized in homicides of the Mossos d’Esquadra in the Girona police region takes on an investigation, they focus from the outset on analyzing the crime scene and trying to reconstruct the last 48 hours of life of the victim.

This is how they discovered, through witnesses and, above all, by emptying the phones, that the two young people had had an argument the day before the stabbing.

As detailed by the head of investigation, the origin of the dispute is that on August 29, the victim and another of the tenants were cleaning the room that they all shared together in the house. While doing these tasks, they found clothes “on the floor”, picked them up and put them in a bag. It turned out that it was the defendant’s property and that the next day, when he was looking for it, he did not find it.

On the afternoon of the 30th, he asked the victim for explanations and they had a first argument with “screams and insults”: “They should have separated them.”

The victim had to leave and spent one night outside the Girona region to carry out some errands, but the sub-inspector said that the emptying of the terminals shows that during those hours the disagreement was “increasing” and they ended up meeting for “fighting” in a “field” nearby on the 31st at three in the afternoon.

The victim did not arrive on time because the return trip was prolonged and finally returned home around eight in the afternoon.

According to the Mossos d’Esquadra investigators, the indications and evidence indicate that the accused “premeditated” the crime because, in fact, in one of the messages he even “threatened to kill” the victim. They also highlight that the defendant took a kitchen knife, took it to the room and hid it “between the sheets” in an “easy access” place to catch it by surprise and attack the victim.

The police investigation considers that the most likely hypothesis is that the victim had no possibility of defending himself because he was completely unarmed and was cornered against the wall in a small room when the accused attacked him. More witnesses reaffirmed this Tuesday, during the second day of the trial, that they did not hear any fight between the two men, only a scream from the victim asking for help and saying that he had been stabbed.

The Citizen Security agents of the Mossos also declared this Tuesday that they were the first to arrive at the notice. While a pair was attending to the victim, although he no longer had vital signs, a police officer who stayed outside to “provide security” for the performance saw, among the men who were outside, one with a “totally different” attitude: “Everyone “They were upset and put their hands over their heads, but he moved away and was still.” It was then that he saw that he was carrying a knife in his hand. “I told him to drop the knife and get on your knees, he did and we stopped him. He was very cooperative and did not resist at any time,” explained the waiter.

Prosecutor Víctor Pillado initially requests 24 years in prison for the defendant as the alleged perpetrator of a crime of murder. He also requests that, if convicted, he be expelled from the country with an entry ban for 10 years once he reaches the third degree or when he is granted conditional release. In terms of civil liability, he wants him to compensate the victim’s relatives (mother and five siblings) with a total of 340,000 euros for moral damage.

The defense, headed by lawyer Cristina Casellas, maintains that the accused had no intention of ending the victim’s life and considers that the stabbing constitutes the crime of reckless homicide. She also alleges that there are mitigating circumstances of confession and collaboration with justice.

According to the trial script, the defendant is scheduled to testify on Wednesday morning. Afterwards, there will be the conclusions process and the prosecutor and the defense will issue the report. The third section plans to deliver the subject of the verdict to the popular jury on Thursday morning, which will retire to deliberate.