José Antonio Luis Aguiar, who is serving 17.5 years in prison for a murder committed in room 306 of the Padrón Pension in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, has recognized this Monday, after his lawyer requested his acquittal, that he is also guilty of the death of Adoración VR, who passed away in the same room.
The first of these two deaths was precisely that of Adoración, in June 2009, but his body was not found until 2016, in a ravine, when the defendant was serving a sentence for the murder of a former soldier, whose lifeless body was found in August 2010, eight months after his death, between two mattresses in room 306.
In the jury trial that began this Monday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has maintained its request for 25 years in prison for the murder of Adoración, a woman who lost her life when she was 43 years old and who, according to one of her three daughters, , was “dark, long hair, pretty, skinny (about 47 kilos) and petite (147 centimeters)”.
Adoración died a few days after leaving prison, where he spent three years, the same time that José Antonio was, sentenced for assaulting the woman with whom, according to the prosecutor, he had a romantic relationship, but who he assured was friendship. .
Adoración’s corpse presented multiple traumas, as well as broken four ribs on both sides and the left fibula, and, according to the account of the Public Prosecutor, she suffered a traumatic shock that could have caused her death.
The defendant, as indicated by the prosecutor, grabbed the victim with his hands by the neck or put him in a key and strangled her until he fractured the hyoid bone.
He has also pointed out that the accused waited about 12 hours until rigor mortis disappeared to clean blood stains from the room, but he did not notice a few drops that remained on the headboard of the bed, and he has also said that José Antonio did a photograph of the corpse with a mobile phone.
He added that the defendant wrapped the body in sheets and a blanket, put it in two knapsacks that they gave him when he left prison, and hid it in a cave in the Barranco de Santos, which is about 300 meters from the pension.
The body was found 7 years later, when the rains moved the land and it was left in view of some passers-by, and what led to its recognition were the drops of blood found on the headboard of room 306.
The prosecutor has highlighted that Adoración and José Antonio had a sentimental relationship and that she helped him financially, and has stressed that her death occurred after an argument presumably because she wanted to end that relationship.
He has stressed that it is a murder, not a homicide, because he acted with treachery and cruelty.
The defense has asked the jury not to be carried away by conjecture, and after emphasizing that sentimental relationships are not synonymous with sexual relations, it has questioned whether the photograph on a mobile phone was made by his client, and has claimed that it should not be take into account his history of assaults.
José Antonio has assured that the relationship was one of friendship, as well as that the 50 times they saw each other in the three years in prison were as friends, and has recognized that Adoración, who received a pension of between 400 and 500 euros for a disability of the 90% helped him financially because he wanted to.
She has stated that when she was released from prison in April 2009 she went to the aforementioned pension, where she received a call from Adoration because she would be out a few days later, and, as she has stated, at first she stayed in another room, but later they shared room 306, that it had two beds, because it was friends.
José Antonio has commented that they were “always” arguing due to the problems caused by the toxic substances you were consuming, crack and heroin, and he has acknowledged that during one of those discussions he punched Adoración with “four or five” punches, but no kicks and When he saw that she wasn’t breathing, he waited before putting her in a rucksack.
He thought of leaving the body in a container but decided to throw it into the ravine during the day, and he considered that at that moment the victim’s ribs could have been broken, and he denied that there was blood in the room.
José Antonio has insisted that at that time he was “very bad” due to his drug addiction problems, and has pointed out that he did think about contacting Adoración’s relatives, but he did not because he did not have their contacts.
He has asserted that he felt a lot of affection for her because she had helped him.
This Monday one of the three daughters of Adoración, who reported the disappearance of her mother three years after her death, something that, she explained, was due to the fact that when she went to the National Police station they told her that Since they did not live together, he could not file a complaint.
The relationship with her mother was good until the drug problems began, and the complaint for her disappearance was accepted because the bank where she had the Adoración account reported that since 2009 there had been no outflows of money.
The daughter has indicated that her mother had suffered an overdose, as a result of which she suffered pneumonia and encephalopathy, and then spent time in the Febles Campos hospital, for which she went to live with her grandparents, and has added that Adoration walked with crutches due to knee problems
It was the daughter who arranged the papers for her mother to collect the aid and this Monday she commented that before leaving prison she told her that the following Sunday she would go to see her at her house, something that did not happen.