A popular jury declared David A. guilty this Tuesday afternoon of the murder of his wife Valentina C., which occurred in 2017 in the Madrid town of Collado Villalba. However, the verdict exonerates him of the rape, in which he was also involved. The defendant is accused of having found very characteristic signs of a sexual assault on the victim’s legs. They did not constitute sufficient evidence for the jury to consider bodily harm proven. This is the second time that the defendant has heard this verdict, as the trial had to be repeated this month after the Madrid Supreme Court (TSJM) annulled the one three years ago due to voting irregularities.
In September 2020, when this crime was tried for the first time, David A. was found guilty by a majority and not unanimously as this time. The deciding factor was a jury spokesman who, as he descended the stairs of the Madrid Provincial Court, said he had changed his mind about not having to sleep another night in the hotel to continue deliberations. Another member of the jury heard it and reported it, which led to the TSJM granting the defense’s appeal and ordering the hearing to be reheard. The defendant was released from prison in 2021 after the maximum period that can be spent in prison without punishment has expired.
The crime took place in May 2017. The couple returned home after dinner with friends and the next day the man alerted emergency services that he had found his wife dead in the chalet when he returned from a motorcycle trip he had left early had left in the morning. According to his version, someone had broken into the house and killed his wife, with whom he had a daughter, who was sleeping in a friend’s house that day. However, the Guardia Civil was suspicious of David A.’s statements from the start and arrested him two days later. To investigators, the entire journey he took that morning before calling emergency services was a ploy to get away from home and build his version of a possible robbery. The woman was suffocated and bound with duct tape.
The prosecution’s arguments and allegations were on the table and showed that there was no sign that any entry to the chalet had been forced, pointing out that Valentina had requested the Guardia Civil several times, although she never made a request had a complaint against her husband and highlighted the defendant’s DNA remains found under the victim’s nails.
Since the sexual assault is not considered proven, the permanent prison sentence is removed from the list of possible punishments, which is what the public prosecutor and the private prosecutor have requested.
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