Jury finds man guilty of murdering 74-year-old woman in Sabiote
A jury in Jaén has convicted Ginés R. M. of murdering, sexually assaulting and robbing Carmen Pérez in her home. Prosecutors are seeking a reviewable life sentence and more than 25 additional years in prison.
Popular jury convicts defendant in Sabiote murder after four hours of deliberation
A jury at the Provincial Court of Jaén has found Ginés R. M., 41, guilty of the murder, sexual assault and violent robbery committed against Carmen Pérez, 74, in her home in the Jaén municipality of Sabiote. According to ABC, the verdict was announced after just over four hours of deliberation.
The defendant maintained a calm demeanour throughout the trial, held since Monday at the Provincial Court, and proclaimed his innocence, claiming he had been "set up" for the crime. The defence requested full acquittal due to the absence of direct witnesses, the lack of semen samples on the victim's body, and the presence at the scene of an unidentified genetic profile different from his client's.
DNA as decisive evidence
The prosecution argued that there was no doubt about Ginés R. M.'s responsibility. DNA samples from the defendant found at the crime scene, as well as traces of the victim found on the defendant's clothing, were classified by the public prosecutor's office as conclusive evidence. The prosecutor also highlighted the defendant's "cold and defiant" demeanour throughout the proceedings and stressed that no alteration of his mental faculties or that he acted under the influence of drugs had been established.
During the trial it also emerged that Ginés R. M. has a criminal history of 39 previous arrests.
The night of the crime
The events occurred in the early morning of 6 to 7 May 2024. According to the account given by the prosecutor and the family's lawyer, the defendant climbed over the wall to access the terrace of Carmen Pérez's home, where she was sleeping with the window open. Once inside, he went to the bedroom and struck the woman repeatedly before stabbing her up to six times with "a pointed instrument he was carrying or some other similar implement".
After sexually assaulting her, he strangled her until she died by asphyxiation. The reason that apparently led to the fatal outcome was, according to the prosecution, that the victim had recognised him and the defendant wanted to avoid being reported.
He then sprayed the property with bleach "for the purpose of concealing the crime and leaving no traces". The victim's pyjamas were found wrapped in a sheet, hidden on the terrace of a nearby and unoccupied property.
From the home to a bar in Úbeda
Before leaving the house, the defendant took money, jewels, a grill pan, some shackles and several bottles of oil, and left in the victim's car heading towards a bar in Úbeda. Security cameras at the premises filmed him entering with three bottles of oil, the grill pan, the shackles and the stolen jewels.
The prosecutor noted that the fact that he drove to Úbeda several times that night strengthens the thesis that he acted with full consciousness and without being under the influence of narcotics, an argument also supported by the family's lawyer.
Request for reviewable life sentence
The public prosecutor's office has requested for Ginés R. M. the sentence of reviewable life imprisonment—which entails a minimum of 30 years in prison—for the crime of murder. To this are added 15 years in prison for sexual assault, five more years for violent robbery in an inhabited property and another five for violent robbery involving the use of a motor vehicle. In these last two crimes the aggravating factor of reoffending applies, which would bring the total sentence requested to more than 55 years.
The defence, in the event that the verdict was one of guilt—as it ultimately was—requested that full or partial exemption be applied on grounds of drug addiction. Both the prosecutor and the family's lawyer refuted this point: forensic reports did not establish the presence of cocaine in the defendant's system at the time of the events.
"Sociopath" capable of a "gratuitous and absurd" murder
The lawyer for Carmen Pérez's family described the defendant as a sociopath and described the murder as a "gratuitous and absurd" death perpetrated against a woman "especially vulnerable and defenceless", attacked while she slept in her own home. The final sentence, which will set the exact sentence, now rests with the professional panel at the Provincial Court of Jaén.
Source: ABC