Loja judges impose maximum sentence on man who coordinated murder from detention
Kevin G. received 40 years in prison as co-perpetrator of a killing in Loja. He planned the attack from inside a prison and is believed to belong to the Los Lobos gang.
Loja judges impose maximum sentence on man who coordinated murder from detention
Kevin G. must remain imprisoned for four decades after being declared a co-perpetrator of a homicide that occurred in Loja province. The Public Prosecutor's Office succeeded in proving his culpability before the Criminal Guarantees Court that heard the case, according to reporting by the outlet Ecuador 221.
The fatal outcome dates back to February of last year, when a person was lured through a false story. They were promised they would retrieve an item in the vicinity of the Loja city. However, upon arriving at the designated location, several individuals were waiting to attack them with a knife. The victim received thirty-eight stab wounds and their body was discovered days later on a remote road.
Detectives established that the victim had received calls and messages from inside a prison. The inmate who was communicating was Kevin himself, who induced them to travel to the ambush site by falsely claiming they would be handed over merchandise. The reality was that the hired killers were seeking to take the cash the victim was carrying to pay for the shipment, which is suspected to have been narcotics.
In the oral hearing, prosecutors presented the documentation gathered. Forensic experts analysed smartphones and recovered chats in which the inmate agreed on details of the crime. The autopsy report, photographic record of the scene and the cadaver exhumation procedure were also presented.
The case file indicates, moreover, that the now-condemned man and the direct perpetrators would be members of the gang known as Los Lobos, implicated in the drug trade in that Andean locality.
The killers who carried out the murder have since been located, but justice verified that both had died, so it was not possible to prosecute them.
The sentence imposed exceeds the ordinary limit for the crime of murder—which ranges between twenty-six and thirty years according to Ecuadorian criminal law—because the magistrates found multiple aggravating circumstances that justified raising the penalty to forty years.
Source: Google News EC — Crime