Two sentenced to 37 years for aggravated homicide of Andes student in Bogotá
Bogotá Criminal Court 801 sentenced Juan Carlos Suárez Ortiz and Ricardo González Castro to prison for killing Jaime Esteban Moreno Jaramillo. The Prosecution and defence announced appeals.
Bogotá court imposes 37 years and six months on co-perpetrators of Uniandino student's murder
Criminal Court 801 of Bogotá's Judicial Circuit sentenced Juan Carlos Suárez Ortiz and Ricardo Rafael González Castro to 450 months in prison — 37 years and six months — as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Jaime Esteban Moreno Jaramillo, an engineering student at the University of the Andes, according to pulzo.com. The incident occurred in October of last year; both convicted individuals will remain imprisoned in the facility determined by the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec).
Despite the severity of the sentence, the Prosecution, the defence lawyers for the accused and the lawyers for the victim's family expressed disagreement with the ruling. Only the Ombudsman's Office backed the decision. All dissenting parties announced that they would appeal to the Superior Court of Bogotá in a virtual hearing convened by the judge.
The events in the early morning outside Bifor Pub
The judicial reconstruction established that Jaime Esteban Moreno and his friend Juan David Cárdenas Ortiz were leaving the Bifor Pub establishment in the early morning in search of transport when Suárez Ortiz initiated a physical assault against the victim. The violence continued even as Moreno Jaramillo attempted to move away. González Castro joined in the attack at a later stage, intensifying the beating. The judge determined that both continued to strike the victim when he was already lying on the ground without capacity to respond.
A central element of the trial was the origin of the attack. Witness Valentina Paricet Peña Castañeda testified that a woman dressed in black pointed out Jaime Esteban as an alleged harasser, which triggered the assault. The court clarified that the proceedings did not seek to establish whether harassment had occurred, but rather whether that identification by third parties was taken as sufficient justification to exercise lethal violence. The judge considered that it was. In addition, it was recorded that Suárez Ortiz stated that they would continue the attack if someone encouraged them, which the tribunal valued as evidence of a collective dynamic.
Aggravating factors applied: defencelessness and abject motive
The judge applied the aggravating factor provided for in numeral seven of article 104 of the Criminal Code, which contemplates greater punishability when homicide is committed by taking advantage of the victim's defencelessness. Among the determining factors were the time of the attack — the early morning — the numerical superiority of the assailants, the state of vulnerability of Moreno Jaramillo and the continuity of the blows after the victim lost all capacity for defence.
The tribunal also applied the circumstances of greater punishability under article 58 of the Criminal Code for abject motive: the judge considered that the assailants acted motivated by third-party identification, with savagery and incited by their surroundings, without there being any real danger or recourse to the authorities. The judge emphasised that criminal responsibility did not rest solely on the individual blows struck by each one, but on having participated jointly in conduct that proved fatal.
The case moves to the appellate stage
With notification of the ruling and the announcement of appeals by various parties to the proceedings, the case now moves to the Superior Court of Bogotá, which will review the decision adopted at first instance. The debate remains open regarding the appropriateness of the sentence and the precise circumstances surrounding the events that early morning.
Source: Google News CO — Bogotá