The Provincial Court of Madrid has agreed to dissolve the popular jury in the trial against two drivers accused of the fatal 'race' on the M-30 on July 25, 2021, and has issued an international arrest warrant due to indications that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, may have left Spain.
The events judged took place around eleven-thirty in the morning, when both involved started an illegal race in the tunnels of the M-30. One of the cars ended up colliding with another vehicle, whose driver died hours later at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid.
The Prosecutor's Office was seeking fifteen years in prison for each of them for a crime of homicide and another of reckless driving. The defense of the fugitive accused maintained the concurrence of an extenuating circumstance of insurmountable fear, understanding that his client was being pursued by the other defendant and that he had no possibility of leaving the road through any of the tunnel exits.
The oral hearing was declared suspended this Thursday and the jury was dissolved after the escape of one of the defendants for homicide was confirmed, against whom there is suspicion that he would have escaped abroad.
The president of the court has explained to the jury that it is not possible to continue with the trial because it is necessary to "guarantee the rights of the accused". "Only the statement is missing, but we are missing it. They cannot contrast what one is going to say and what the other is going to say. This matter is so related to what one of the accused does and what the other does. Subjecting them to an object of the verdict would be diabolical," she indicated.
The trial had already been interrupted the previous week, after a warrant for the arrest of the accused was issued. The presiding judge requested the Civil Guard to go to his home, where he was not found.
The practice of testimonial and expert evidence concluded on April 14. For the next day, the statements of both defendants before the jury and the court were scheduled, but one of them did not appear.
In one of the subsequent sessions, both the defense and the prosecutor agreed to suspend the hearing until his whereabouts were located or, failing that, to dissolve the jury court if the defendant continued to be absent, as has finally happened.
Among the key evidentiary elements were the recordings from the M-30 security cameras, which captured speeds of up to 176 km/h on a stretch limited to 70 km/h.
However, the defense questioned the reliability of said measurements in their initial reports, arguing that the calculations were made from images from the M-30 cameras and not through approved radars.