Jury declares defendant guilty of homicide in Granada 'chainsaw killing' but requests sentence suspension
The jury in the trial for the homicide in Castilléjar recognises the defendant's guilt but requests that he not go to prison based on self-defence and insurmountable fear.
Verdict in the 'chainsaw killing': guilty of homicide but no imprisonment
The jury that tried the homicide that took place in Castilléjar, a locality in the north of Granada province, has declared guilty the defendant—a 63-year-old man—for killing another resident with a gunshot in July 2021, but has requested that he not enter prison. According to ABC, the tribunal of nine members—five women and four men—considered that the perpetrator acted in self-defence and under "insurmountable fear", for which reason it requested applying the corresponding incomplete exemption and suspension of the sentence.
The case, popularly known as the chainsaw killing, receives that name not because that was the murder weapon, but because the dispute between the two men had its origin in that object. The defendant declared to the jury that, in the afternoon of 23 July 2021, he noticed that the chainsaw which the victim intended to sell him had been stolen and warned the legitimate owner. From that moment onwards a series of telephone threats and audio messages followed—reproduced during the trial—which would have continued moments before the crime, when the victim attempted to access the defendant's cave house.
The defendant killed the victim with a gunshot and then called the Guardia Civil to turn himself in and assume responsibility for the facts.
A proceeding marked by procedural turns
The trial had already recorded a first turn before the verdict: the Prosecution considerably reduced its penalty request, from 22 years to eight. What had initially been characterised as murder with treachery was reduced to homicide, with the mitigating circumstances of recklessness and confession.
The jury went a step further in its deliberation. While acknowledging that the homicide occurred, the nine members supported suspension of the sentence so that the convicted man would not enter prison. The man is currently on provisional release after having remained four years in pre-trial detention, the maximum term permitted by Spanish legislation while awaiting trial.
The final decision on the sentence now falls to the tribunal, which must assess the jury's verdict and the application of the requested exemptions before issuing its ruling.
Source: ABC