The Alicante court has sentenced to a permanent, contestable prison sentence a pool cleaner from Jávea who killed the owner of a house where he worked with nine stab wounds and caught him stealing from a room in the house. Héctor James TG, a Colombian immigrant who has lived in Spain for 25 years, sneaked into the chalet using the keys he had for his work, but was stopped by the owner, Francisco D., a 96-year-old man with limited mobility , surprised . and poor eyesight, whom he stabbed without saying a word. The loot from this crime was meager: a laptop worth 220 euros.
The events occurred on December 21, 2021, when the now convicted man, who had the keys to the front gate, entered the house knowing Francisco was inside; but confident the victim's vision and mobility problems would prevent him from discovering it. But the old man got up and caught the pool cleaner rummaging through a room with gloves and a knife. According to investigators during the trial, the now convicted man is said to have believed that there was cash in the house, especially due to the proximity of the Christmas holidays, but he did not find it and only took the laptop with him.
The thief, who had been cleaning and maintaining the house's pool for five years, stabbed him nine times, two of them fatally, “without giving him an opportunity to defend himself due to the age difference and the victim's vision and mobility problems.” . , says a statement from the Supreme Court of the Valencian Community.
The man was convicted after a popular jury returned a guilty verdict on February 9th. During the oral hearing, the members of this jury learned of the changes in the defendant's version and also of an important piece of evidence: the Civil Guard of the Alicante Command, which investigated the events, found a genetic trace of the defendant in the nails of the murdered elderly man. They were also able to learn that, based on surveillance camera footage, James was at the crime scene on the day of the crime, although he denied this in his testimony to the Guardia Civil.
The court also imposed a five-year prison sentence on the defendant, who has been imprisoned since April 2022, for the crimes of robbery with violence in an inhabited house and the use of weapons. The convicted person must compensate each of the deceased's three children with 50,000 euros. The judgment is not final and can be appealed to the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Valencian Community.
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don't miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to