The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands dismissed the appeal filed by the defense attorney of the man accused of sending an explosive device to a cousin in La Matanza, which, in the end, caused injuries to him, a brother and their father. The facts They occurred on November 22, 2020 very close to the door of the bomb recipient’s house.
The investigation was carried out by the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of Puerto de la Cruz and the Crimes against Persons Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police (UOPJ) of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Among other things, the agents obtained images from video surveillance cameras that showed that the man under investigation went to the location where the event occurred and carried a bag with the metal box in which the device that he himself manufactured to cause damage was found. serious to the recipient.
The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands ratified the sentence imposed at the time by the Fifth Section of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. However, an appeal can now be filed against the new resolution before the Supreme Court.
In his appeal before the TSJC, the Defense lawyer stated that there was a violation of the presumption of innocence, a violation of the rules of the legal system, for not having allowed the accused to testify last during the trial; the breaking of the chain of custody of the different images collected by the Civil Guard investigators; error in the appreciation of the evidence, and violation of the principle of proportionality.
The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJC recalls that both the representative of the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense lawyer himself were the ones who proposed that the accused male testify first at the hearing.
Furthermore, remember that the procedural representation of the investigated person was aware of the evidence proposed by the Public Ministry. Another of the arguments presented by the judges of the Civil and Criminal Chamber is that the accused is not obliged to testify, so he can answer all, part or none of the questions. And, furthermore, he is not obliged to recognize the facts that are attributed to him.
The Defense lawyer also proposed challenging the recordings contained in a pendrive, which contained the images captured by video surveillance cameras in the company where he worked in those days; at the hotel in Puerto de la Cruz where he was staying that weekend with his then romantic partner; in a well-known gas station located on the Northern Highway (TF-5) and, above all, in the place where he left the device that he himself manufactured, with the aim of causing a deflagration and an explosion.
All of these video images were captured between Friday, November 20, 2020 and Sunday, the 22nd of the same month.
In the opinion of the defense lawyer, there was no effective custody of the aforementioned evidence by the members of the Civil Guard responsible for its collection, which could have led to its manipulation.
However, the Civil and Criminal Chamber considers that the recordings enjoy full and total guarantee; at the same time that “they serve as support to justify the sentence imposed”, since they ratify the route that he took from the company in the south of Tenerife where the accused worked in those days and where he manufactured the device; the hotel establishment where he stayed that weekend, at the service station where he passed in the early morning of the events and the street where he arrived at his cousin’s home in La Matanza de Acentejo.
Regarding the sentence imposed by the Fifth Section of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and now confirmed by the TSJC, of 14 years in prison, five years are for the crime of manufacturing, possession and transportation of an explosive device, while The remaining nine years are for three criminal offenses of aggravated injuries in the form of use of a dangerous instrument. In addition, he will not be able to approach the victims for the next 19 years (five more than the prison sentence).
In four days that he worked in a company in the south of Tenerife, the accused manufactured the artisanal explosive device. In a metal box he placed three butane gas cylinders of 227 grams each, which were connected to an electrical device. To this he added screws cut on the bias and metal rods as shrapnel. According to experts, the device was activated after opening or manipulating the lid. Furthermore, at the top of it was written one of the surnames of the person to whom the artifact was addressed.
On the morning of Friday, November 20, he kept said box at the bottom of the trunk of his Volkswagen Golf, right in the space dedicated to the spare tire. That same afternoon she went to a hotel in Cross port, along with his then romantic partner. And in the early hours of Sunday morning she left the metal box in front of the garage door of one of her cousins.
