The Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced Abraham ZA to 24 years in prison for treasonously murdering his partner, Ramona JSA, with special cruelty and with the aggravating factors of kinship and gender violence: he doused it with gasoline and set it on fire.
Once last week the popular jury issued its guilty verdict, now the convicted person is also imposed the payment of 75,000 euros to each of the two daughters of the deceased and a 10-year restraining order after compliance with the grief. In that period of time he will not be able to approach them within 500 meters.
The events took place on September 23, 2020 at 3:30 a.m. in a house in the urbanization Princess Iballa of La Laguna.
At that moment there was a strong argument and then the man set fire to the victim, who would die at 11:45 the following day in the University Hospital of the Canary Islands (HUC).
Mood to cause death
As the jury ruled a week ago, the defendant acted with the intention of causing her death and for this he introduced her into the bathtub, sprayed it with gasoline and set it on fire.
As a result the victim suffered second and third degree burns in 85% of his body and internal injuries due to inhalation of smoke and heat.
The judgment considers it proven that the defendant carried out the murder consciously, without the woman being able to oppose by preventing her from any type of defense given her greater physical strength and being alone in the house.
“The man chose to set her on fire with the intention of killing her, he did so knowing that she was causing terrible suffering and deliberately and unnecessarily increasing both physical and mental suffering to consummate her death,” the sentence indicates.
Proven coexistence
It is also taken as proven that the defendant maintained a relationship of affectivity and coexistence with the victim and that he treated her in a derogatory, humiliating manner, constantly reproaching her for supporting her, feeding her, he let her live in his house and therefore she had to obey him.
In this way he placed it in a inferiority role and subordination to his partner if he did not comply with his wishes, as the neighbors heard several times.
The judgment He describes the evidence against Abraham as “overwhelming” insofar as he himself partially recognized the facts, there are testimonies of his aggressive character and an unbearable and conflictive neighborhood coexistence with continuous fights with the other residents of the building.
“He lacked the minimum of hygiene and the shouting and insults were constant, which he starred that night and previous days with the victim even in the moments after setting it on fire ”, is indicated in the ruling.
deflagration
Precisely, the deflagration was what alerted the neighbors who came to the apartment, then hearing the victim ask for help and contemplating her “dire” state to the point that the witnesses confessed “the horror of seeing her with her hair burned, without eyebrows, her torso exposed with the melted silicone bra, without a nipple and burned breasts.”
At that time neighbors and police officers they heard the woman screaming that the man wanted to kill her, burned her and for that purpose had put her in the bathtub, sprayed her with gasoline and set it on fire.
Meanwhile, the defendant maintained an impassive attitude and asked him to shut up and say that it had all been an accident.
The Documentary evidencegraphs, visual inspections of the place, traces collected and analyzed or autopsy are evidence that the judge considers “sufficient probative material” to conclude his guilt.
One of the most controversial aspects is whether they actually formed a couple, which the defendant denied at all times.
Aggravating factors
On the contrary, in the failed it is determined that “the sentimental relationship that linked the defendant and the deceased victim is in the cause of the crime” and requires the application of the aggravating circumstance of kinship.
The gender aggravating factor it is based on “the contemptuous and humiliating treatment with which he treated her” and that was once again revealed when Ramona told her that she wanted to register at the defendant’s house, to which he violently refused.
The jury ruled out that the man acted under the influence of alcohol or drugs or that he suffered from a personality disorder despite the fact that he suffered from various mental pathologies, is on medication and had attempted suicide on at least one occasion.
The defendant’s version that it was she who was doused with gasoline caught fire when he went to the kitchen to get a beer.
