Manuel Murillo, convicted of the murder of Pedro Sánchez, addressed the National Court in his final speech during his trial on March 30, 2022.
“There was a specific plan, a specific victim and a request for help from third parties to provide him with accurate information about the governor’s movements.” So vigorous were three judges of the Appeals Chamber of the National Court, who extended the sentence of Manuel Murillo, a far-right gunman who threatened to kill socialist Pedro Sánchez and then sought help, after collecting a significant arsenal of weapons, including revolvers and an assault rifle . After the court dismissed the defense’s appeal and upheld the prosecution’s appeal, the court finally sentenced the defendant to eight years and nine months in prison – compared to the seven and a half years imposed at first instance – and confirmed that there was a ” objective risk”.
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In this way, six judges have already concluded that Murillo, a 66-year-old security guard nostalgic for Francoism, poses a real threat. According to the Appeals Chamber, he showed a “serious, persistent and repeated” intention to commit the crime. An attitude that is “always more concrete and determined”, according to the judgment of October 25. In addition, the resolution continued, he sought third-party help to carry out his plan and he “concretized” it to Patricia Marta Muñoz, a Vox local coordinator in Catalonia. “I thought that [el partido] he had the ability to provide him with resources and contacts that would help him achieve his purpose,” say the judges, who point out that the political formation “didn’t provide him with any assistance.”
“He had the persistence, fixation and sleepless determination” to put an end to the CEO’s life, emphasized the three first instance judges in their judgment last April, in which they refuted the defense’s allegations and ruled out a psychological change in him. Murillo insisted he was drunk when he sent the incriminating messages and that it was just bullying. In his appeal he added that his presumption of innocence had been violated and the evidence presented against him had been misjudged.
But the court of appeals rejected this. There is “enough evidence” to convict him, says this court, which only accepted the prosecutor’s appeal. The prosecutor believed the penalty had been miscalculated for “premeditated homicide,” one of the two crimes for which he was convicted – the other being depositing weapons of war. And for that, the judges agree to sentence him to 15 more months in prison.
Murillo, son of the last Francoist mayor of Rubí (Barcelona), was arrested by the Mossos in 2018. Investigators had suspected him after receiving the warning that he had told his acquaintances that he wanted to kill Sánchez and had already done so, beginning to move to carry out their idea. “We have to get wet and act. I’m ready. My greatest dream is to put Sánchez’s traitor under Franco’s tombstone,” he wrote to his acquaintances on WhatsApp. What’s more, he even contacted a local Vox coordinator to discuss his plans and ask for help. The agents confiscated an arsenal of weapons.
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The Defendant’s Messages: “Armed to Stage a Coup”
The judgments of the national court summarize the numerous threatening messages the accused sent to his acquaintances:
“Start flying heads.” “I’m about to grab the sniper rifle and start blowing the heads off motherfuckers and traitors. […] But I just can’t get any further. There must be an organization and more”.
“I make 150 bullets.” “Well I’m going to continue with the bullets, I have to be focused and I’m doing 150 bullets […] Yes [Pedro Sánchez] He comes to Catalonia and does a rally, we have to study that and I have everything for that […] I sold two hunting rifles and bought a sniper rifle with the world’s fastest bullet, 1,370 meters per second.”
“As a weaver”. “If someone would help me by forming a commando, I would try to finish everything like Tejero. If not, we must go as anonymous snipers, kill these sons of bitches piece by piece without help and proudly give our lives to us country that is BIG AND FREE [sic]”.
“We must think of a national uprising.” “The laws are useless as long as this government is in place. Here we must think of a national uprising […] Now only the war remains […] If the maternal grandfather of Pedro Sánchez, who was by Franco’s side, lifted his head, he would give him Ostias [sic] as far as you can tell because he betrayed everything he fought for. I want him in the spotlight one day.”
“We have to go back to the ‘far west’.” “If there are no elections soon and this misrule of corrupt incompetents and traitors who consent to the invasion and destruction of Spain continues, we must return to the west of the Wild West with a revolver in our belts, and if so, with a better MG42, it will.” cleaned shit faster.”
“I call the army and the legion.” “I am calling for a national uprising. Although it seems crazy, it would be the real solution [….] I call the army and the legion […] If not, we’ll have to become anonymous snipers and take down these sons of bitches piece by piece without help.”
“Defending Spain with Arms”. “One day we have to meet and if things get worse I’m ready to defend Spain with arms. We have to be organized and armed to stage a coup and tear down all the shit that comes our way.”
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