The main defendant in the death of the 24-year-old Hernani resident Lukas Agirre, who was stabbed twice on Christmas morning 2022 in Okendo Square in San Sebastián after leaving a nightclub with his friends, has stated that he has "a dark cloud" over what happened that night and that he tries to reconstruct what happened every day, while also expressing that he feels "from the heart" for whatever he may have done.
In the fifteenth session of the trial being held at the Gipuzkoa Court for these events, the three defendants have testified and documentary evidence has been presented, showing the jury photographs of the evidence collected by the Ertzaintza, as well as recordings from the nightclub's security cameras, a nearby hotel, and the Treasury building on Okendo Street.
The first to appear was the main defendant. His testimony was interrupted by the magistrate for more than an hour and a half for procedural reasons, as she considered that certain questions raised by his defense about his self-incriminating statement at the police station, before an officer convicted of dealing with a detainee in exchange for drugs, could be inappropriate.
The defendant is accused of having inflicted two fatal stab wounds on Agirre in the side and a cut on the neck. He explained that he had been working on Christmas Eve afternoon and then went out for drinks with colleagues. According to his account, "every time I drank alcohol, I felt like using" and for that reason he went to "buy" drugs "for that night." "I bought ten grams of cocaine and one gram of ketamine to slightly reduce the effect of the coke," he indicated.
He added that, after having dinner with his family, he went out partying again with friends and continued to consume substances and alcohol throughout the night. He went to the nightclub with the other accused and later the third defendant, considered an accomplice to the crime, whom he has known "for many years," joined them. Regarding the latter, he said that he was the owner of the switchblade with which they also consumed cocaine "in the bathrooms." He insisted that inside the venue he had "no problems with anyone."
At the closing of the nightclub, he remembers "leaving alone" and seeing the second accused "surrounded by quite a few people". "I got in the middle to see what was happening with my friend, they pushed me, I let him pass," he declared, adding that afterwards "there was a moment of calm" but one of Lukas Agirre's friends "was trying to intimidate the whole time". "We didn't want any trouble because they outnumbered us three to one," he stressed. Later, according to his account, "another scuffle" occurred in which he was "beaten".
He pointed out that he does not remember "at what moment" the second accused could have "passed" him the knife, but he does remember that he wanted to "run away" out of "fear" after receiving blows "to the face, to the head", which he protected himself from "with his hands", and falling "on the ground several times". "I have like a dark cloud at that moment," he confessed, emphasizing that everything happened "very quickly". "A fight of seven against two," he summarized.
Regarding the accused, he assured that she "was only trying to separate" and that "she wasn't doing anything wrong", and concerning the one considered an accomplice, he indicated that he does not remember "at what moment" he lent him a sneaker, after he lost one of his own.
He explained that he "just wanted to get home" and that, on the way, he threw away the shirt and the jacket he was wearing, both "half torn". Upon arriving at the house, he said that he "didn't know there was a deceased person". "My mother told me what had happened because members of the Ertzaintza had gone to the house," he recounted, adding that he threw himself "on the floor to cry". "I didn't even know what to do, I wasn't believing it," he indicated.
He later went with his mother to the police station to "clarify what happened", after stopping by the accused's house because he didn't know what had happened to them and "he was worried". At the police station, he remembers being attended by an officer who showed him a photograph of his jacket on his mobile phone, the one he had thrown away.
"IN A DREAM"
Regarding his self-incriminating statement at the police station, he recounted that he initially told his court-appointed lawyer that he "did not want to testify" because "he didn't know what had happened and he didn't understand anything". "I didn't believe anything they were saying, it seemed like I was in a dream," he stated.
However, he has stated that, after spending some time in the holding cell and going out to smoke "four or five times" with the same Ertzaintza officer who received him, this officer asked him if he had "anything that could compromise him at home and who he lived with." "I told him that I lived with my mother and sister and that I had drugs at home and he told me if my mother could get them to give them to him and that way nothing would happen," he declared.
"I didn't know what to do, but I thought it would get me out of a jam," he said about this officer, currently disqualified and convicted of making a deal with a detainee in exchange for drugs. "I gave him my mother's number and then I don't know what happened with the drugs," he added, to explain that this Ertzaintza officer told him that there was a video in which he was seen being beaten and he took out "a knife in the air with such bad luck" that it hit Agirre.
"He told me that if I declared that it had been me, I would get fewer years and if I stayed silent, I would get more. I had drunk a lot and consumed, and if an Ertzaintza officer told me, I thought what he was telling me was true," he insisted, even though they never showed him that supposed video. Finally, he assured that he told this officer that he "would say what was said to be in" that recording, although in reality he did not remember "anything more than receiving blows and running away."
The main defendant has addressed the victim's family to convey his "condolences," express that he regrets "from the heart the acts he may have committed" and that "there is not a day that goes by that I don't try to remember what happened that night." "I am truly sorry, from the heart," he reiterated.
DRUG CONSUMPTION
The defendant considered a collaborator in the crime has detailed the daily medication of anxiolytics and antipsychotics he takes and recalled that on that Christmas Eve he had been "consuming" crack cocaine at his home before going to dinner with his parents and the rest of the family, after which he continued consuming drugs and drinking before going to the nightclub where he had arranged to meet the main defendant, whom he described as a "drug friend."
Regarding the defendant, he indicated that he only knew her from having taken her home once, at the request of the main defendant. Of the night of the events, he stated that he did not retain "a concrete memory," beyond the fact that he took drugs, and assured that he did not see any knife, as he snorts cocaine "with an ID and card or with a pipe if it's smoked." "I haven't touched any knife, it's not mine, nor did I leave home with a knife," he remarked.
He added that, besides consuming, he remembers "singing, dancing" and also "a few blows and running away because he was scared." He also does not recall if the main defendant asked him for a sneaker, nor the exact moment of his arrest, only that it was near the Correos offices on Urdaneta street because he heard it in court. He does not remember his time at the police station, nor his first lawyer, only that he was demanding medication, "banging on the door so they would take him to the doctor" and to go to the bathroom.
Finally, the defendant stated that, when she closed the nightclub, she was with the main defendant "at the entrance" and saw "a small argument" in a group that included the other defendant. "I separated them, I told them not to fight," she assured, although she maintained that one of Lukas Agirre's friends "kept insulting and provoking."
According to her account, "the insults continued" and she moved away from the group to talk to another guy who asked her "why they were fighting," after which she headed towards the bus area to check if there was service to Astigarraga, where she lived, and states that she did not realize "anything else." Later she saw the other two defendants "running" with more people and felt "scared," so she also started "running after them." "I was not aware of what had happened," she insisted.