San Juan: Sentence for Amateur Player's Murder Upheld; Psychiatric Evaluation Ordered
San Juan's courts upheld the conviction against Julio Abdias Castro Agüero for the death of Diego Andreoni, but ordered a mental health assessment and analysis of his social circumstances.
San Juan: Sentence for Amateur Player's Murder Upheld; Psychiatric Evaluation Ordered
San Juan's Court of Cassation completely rejected the appeal seeking to overturn the sentence against Julio Abdias Castro Agüero, found guilty of the homicide of non-professional athlete Diego Andreoni. Although the conviction remained in place, the magistrates ruled that the inmate must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and an assessment of his living conditions, with results to be delivered within one working week.
The oral hearing took place this Wednesday, when legal representative María Filomena Noriega's arguments were debated. The lawyer had requested that the verdict condemning her client be declared void. As an alternative, she requested that he be acquitted or, if that was not possible, that the incident be reclassified as an excess of self-defence, which would result in a much lesser sentence.
The defence strategy was based on pointing out that a psychiatric assessment essential for determining the defendant's mental capacity had never been conducted.
The tribunal members—Juan Carlos Caballero Vidal (hijo), Daniel Guillén and Renato Roca—did not accept this position. They held that the absence of such expert report did not render the previous ruling invalid and stressed that the defence team itself could have requested that assessment during the investigation, something it did not do.
Therefore, the court concluded that there were no grounds to invalidate the trial due to an omission that was the responsibility of the lawyers' strategy, leaving the sentence intact.
However, the ruling incorporated an unexpected provision: it instructed the Public Prosecutor's Office to mandatorily organise a review of Castro Agüero's mental state and an analysis of his social context. The report must be ready and submitted to the judges within a period of seven working days.
Thus, whilst responsibility for the death of the young athlete remains in effect, official authorities must now investigate the conduct and circumstances of the convicted man, in a stage that arose precisely from the appeal that sought to reverse the decision.
Information obtained from Diario de Cuyo
Source: Google News PR — San Juan