The Prosecutor’s Office attributes “extreme cruelty” to the five accused of the crime of Samuel Luiz – the 24-year-old young man who died in A Coruña in the early hours of July 3, 2021 after receiving a beating on the seafront of the Herculean city. with the aim of causing his death, according to the tax qualification document.
In particular, it emphasizes that there was a “much more virulent” reaction when the defendant who initiated the attack interpreted that the victim “was homosexual.” “I’m going to stab you, you’re going to die,” states the Public Ministry, from the hate crimes and discrimination section, which points out that the defendant said this statement while “he continued hitting her with punches and kicks.”
Furthermore, it points out that in the persecution that ended with the death of the young man, all the accused participated – four men and a woman -, as well as the two minors, already convicted and serving their sentence in a juvenile center.
In particular, it focuses on the last moments of the attack, which was with “part of the accused hitting him – Samuel – and the rest surrounding him to ensure the attack and prevent any possible help or assistance from third parties.”
“Despite being aware of the serious and desperate situation in which the deceased found himself and of his cruel behavior towards him, they did not separate themselves from the group and not only did they not try to avoid the spectacularly violent action that was taking place before but with their presence and approval throughout the attack they contributed to its tragic execution,” he says of the participants.
For all this, the A Coruña Prosecutor’s Office requests sentences of between 22 and 27 years in prison. He considers all of them co-authors of the crime of murder due to treachery and cruelty, with aggravating discrimination in relation to the sexual orientation of the victim.
For two of the accused who initially participated in the attack, as he explains, he requests a sentence of 25 years in prison and for the other three a sentence of 22 years in prison. To one of them, he adds the request for five years in prison for robbery with violence by charging him with the theft of Samuel’s cell phone.
The events, according to the investigations carried out after what happened and as stated by the Prosecutor’s Office in its letter, began shortly before three in the morning when Samuel was making a video call with a friend outside a pub in the area of ??the city. Riazor beach. At that moment, one of the accused, who had been in the same location, addressed him – neither the aggressor nor the victim knew each other – in an “aggressive manner” to tell him to stop recording them.
The deceased responded that he was making a video call, but the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that, “because of Samuel’s words, gestures, way of dressing, tone of voice and physical appearance,” he “interpreted that he was homosexual, a fact that triggered an even more serious reaction.” virulent attack on the accused because of the animosity towards the homosexual sexual orientation that he attributed to him, going so far as to tell him: ‘stop recording and see if I’m going to kill you, you faggot.'”
“Thereupon, in a surprising and sudden manner, with the intention of causing his death and, in any case, being fully aware and accepting the high risk that his violent action entailed for Samuel’s life, he pounced on him, hitting him with punches and kicks, mainly in the head and face area.
The Prosecutor’s Office explains that a friend joined in, “perfectly aware and accepting the brutality of the action they were carrying out”, knocking the young man to the ground and tightly surrounding his neck.
Likewise, it adds that the only woman accused of these events, “fully aware of the deep animosity towards homosexuality” of the accused who started the fight, “expressed with her behavior her willingness to participate in the attack, ensuring that no one helped the victim.” and actively helping his friends. In fact, she reports that she pushed aside Samuel’s friend, who was asking them to stop.
“In a matter of seconds, a large group of people joined in the attack, who were in the vicinity and included the other accused, who, upon witnessing the attack, ran away, joining the group with the sole purpose of hit” Samuel “in order to deprive him of his life or being aware and accepting that such an outcome could occur.”
All of this is collected in a writing in which it is stated that Samuel Luiz had “no ability to defend himself effectively from the group attack he was suffering”, being “defenceless” in the face of the number of people who beat and surrounded him. In the only moment in which he was able to get up “with difficulty”, and managed to leave the place, he states that the attackers “continued to hit him”, being chased, about “150 meters” along the promenade, by Samuel and two men, from Senegalese nationality, who tried to help him.
“The continuous and brutal blows inflicted were carried out with the deliberate intention of unnecessarily increasing his pain and physical suffering to achieve the lethal end, a reflection of extreme cruelty and dehumanization,” insists the Prosecutor’s Office for whom it was a situation of “extreme and continuous aggressiveness” even when they knew that the victim “lacked any possibility of reaction.
Subsequently, the interveners, he adds, gathered in Europa Park with “faggot” insults at Samuel, who died hours later in the hospital complex of A Coruña (Chuac) due to the “multiple blows” received.
These events are now pending to set a trial date while waiting for all the parties to present their respective briefs, be they defense or accusation – one of them has requested an extension of the deadline to formulate their brief while waiting to have everything the file, as confirmed by Europa Press, — in a case in which Samuel’s family, but also the LGTBI group Alas Coruña, are involved, as a private accusation, in this case as a popular accusation.
