Confessed killer of Mariana Sepúlveda released: crime time-barred after 18 years
Santiago's Seventh Guarantee Court ordered the total dismissal of Ghislain Quiroz, who confessed to murdering the young woman in Conchalí in 2008.
Court releases confessed killer of Mariana Sepúlveda over crime time-bar
Santiago's Seventh Guarantee Court ordered the total and final dismissal of Ghislain Jesús Quiroz Carrizo, a man who confessed to having killed Mariana Sepúlveda 18 years ago in the district of Conchalí, according to cnnchile.com.
The court had initially ordered the provisional detention of Quiroz, 42, on grounds of his "reduced cognitive capacity". However, the measure was reversed following a report delivered by the Police of Investigation (PDI) that verified that the accused never left the country.
This evidence proved decisive: the statute of limitations for the crime committed in 2008 had already expired, given that said period can only be doubled when the accused leaves the national territory. Upon confirming that Quiroz remained in Chile, the court declared that criminal proceedings had become time-barred and ordered his release.
The detention had occurred after Quiroz himself confessed to members of Chile's Carabineros that he had murdered the 19-year-old woman. According to his account, he killed her following an argument and buried the body on his own property. In 2013, according to Radio Biobío, he exhumed the remains and threw them in the bin.
The case highlights the legal limitations of criminal statutes of limitations in the face of delayed confessions to murder.
Source: Google News CL — Crime