Three years in prison for man who shot burglar in his Ciempozuelos home
A jury found guilty a Ciempozuelos resident who, following a break-in at his home, fired at the intruder and left him paraplegic. The Provincial Court imposed a three-year prison sentence for attempted homicide.
Three years in prison for man who shot burglar in his Ciempozuelos home
A panel of judges based in Madrid has imposed a three-year custodial sentence on an individual tried for attempted homicide. The incident took place on 11 July 2023 in the municipality of Ciempozuelos, when the resident of a property fired at someone who had forced their way into his home. The bullet struck a critical area of the body and the intruder was confined to a wheelchair, with permanent work incapacity.
The burglar turned out to be Héctor Manuel, identified by law enforcement as the leader of the 'Dominican Don't Play' faction. Along with a second participant, he was held responsible as a co-perpetrator of home invasion using force and intimidation; both received a judicial sentence of twenty-four months deprivation of liberty plus a financial penalty equivalent to seven months, according to a statement from the General Council of the Judiciary.
During the oral proceedings with citizen participation it was established that the pistol used was the property of the burglar himself, who had shown it in order to coerce. The resident managed to take the firearm from him and pulled the trigger multiple times. The citizen jury determined that, without immediate medical intervention, the attacker would have died.
The judicial ruling acknowledged mitigating factors that benefited the shooter: admission of facts, mental disorder linked to drug dependency, and circumstances equivalent to legitimate self-defence. The court acknowledged that there was a prior unlawful aggression when entry was forced and the weapon was displayed, but rejected absolute exemption from liability after concluding that the reaction exceeded reasonable limits. By firing repeated shots at close range, the resident consciously assumed the high risk of causing death.
Following the incident, the convicted person telephoned the Guardia Civil to report the shots and his conviction that he had caused death. He provided his whereabouts and placed himself at the disposal of the officers without offering resistance, facilitating the rapid clarification of events.
The sentence accorded greater reliability to the account of the occupant than to that of the two intruders. There were also previous complaints filed by the accused with the Guardia Civil warning of coercion to leave the property and his fear that the visitors would arrive carrying weapons. Several objective indicators corroborated his version: damage to the front door, biometric traces of the accused on objects found inside, ballistic trajectory reflected in expert reports, and the procedural reconstruction of events.
The court determined that access to the property was carried out through violence and that the visitors used physical and psychological coercion to enter the home and expel whoever inhabited it, thereby establishing the aggravated crime of unlawful occupation of a dwelling.
Source: ABC
Source: ABC