SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 4 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The jury court of the trial against Thomas Handrick has unanimously declared him guilty this Friday of the double murder of his wife and one of his children committed on April 23, 2019 in a cave located in the upper area of the municipality of Adeje.
The verdict, read at the Palace of Justice, also considers Handrick guilty of the crime of attempted murder in attempting to murder his second son, Jonas – aged seven -, who managed to flee the scene.
Thus, the jury has declared proven that Handrick committed a crime of murder with his wife, by treachery, and with the aggravating circumstance of kinship, another crime of murder by treachery and cruelty with his eldest son Jakob – he was 10 years old – and another crime of attempted murder by treachery with the aggravating circumstance of being related to Jonas, who managed to flee.
After two days of deliberations, it also considers it proven that Silvia – Handrick’s wife in separation proceedings – was “hit repeatedly inside and outside the cave with a large stone” and that she led her family “to an area remote and not frequented by hikers” to consummate the facts.
In addition, it highlights the physical corpulence of the accused and understands that it is not proven that he was under any process of “mental disturbance”, as the defense maintains, since no toxicological evidence is provided.
Likewise, the jury believes that it is not possible to apply mitigating factors due to the depressive condition he suffered from and points out that he had the “conviction” that Jonas was not going to survive due to his state of fatigue and the difficulty of the path.
The Prosecutor’s Office asks for a total of 50 years in prison, 25 years for the murder of his wife and another 25 for the attempt on his youngest son, plus reviewable permanent prison for the murder of the first-born, to which 20 years of supervised freedom are added , the prohibition of approaching less than 500 meters from his surviving son and compensation of 500,000 euros, of which 300,000 are for the minor and 200,000 for Silvia’s parents.
In addition, the private prosecution requests a sentence of up to 65 years in prison and the Institute for Equality another 60 years.
The defense has disagreed with the verdict of the jury and has been ratified in the brief of conclusions and it is expected that the sentence will be made public in the coming days.
