The Army captain on trial for strangling his wife in November 2023 has admitted in his statement that he committed "a monstrosity" when he lost control after she threatened him with a false report of abuse against their son, regretting having ruined the lives of his children and both families.
"It was such a horrific act, it was a monstrosity. I don't know how I broke down and why I didn't leave my house as I had done in other arguments. I regret it from the moment I became aware of what I had done," he asserted.
The trial taking place at the Provincial Court of Madrid against Antonio P. C. will conclude tomorrow with the presentation of final arguments. The defense already indicated in the first session that it would request a complete exemption due to psychological alteration linked to a supposed Severe Depressive Disorder (TDG), a version that the psychiatrists who examined him in prison reject.
In a hearing of about three hours, the accused responded calmly and with a contained attitude to the questions from the parties, offering a detailed account of their married life and of what happened on the day of the crime.
The defendant stated that he felt questioned by his wife, Leticia, and by his in-laws. "She made me feel that her customs were superior to mine," he asserted, also pointing out alleged mockery of his origins from Jaén and of his parents.
According to his version, conflicts had been ongoing since the children's baptism, when some of his wife's relatives began to use derogatory nicknames to refer to his parents and his brother. His father, for example, was called "the drunk grandfather."
The soldier added that he had hidden episodes of anxiety, insomnia, and the fact that he was receiving psychological attention for months for fear of possible repercussions on his military career. "A soldier has to be quite well. I feared losing my post if a medical file was opened," he admitted.
The argument on the day of the crime
Regarding November 25, 2023, the date of the events, he described a family day that included a visit to the Faunia theme park with the victim's parents and their two minor children. According to his account, tension arose after one of the children hit his head while going down a slide.
Returning to the home, he recounted that his wife commented in front of their eldest daughter that "they were going to make dad leave home," something he claims to have tried to prevent by asking her to avoid saying such things in front of the minor.
Insults, threats, and blackout
Next, he described a heated argument in the kitchen during which, always according to his testimony, he received insults and threats from his wife. "She told me she was going to use the child's wound to report me," he stated, claiming that this caused him an emotional blackout.
"A current runs through my body, I go blank. I remember blows and noise, and when I regained my senses, I was grabbing her by the neck. I got scared, I let go and said: 'Leticia, Leticia'," he detailed. When asked by his lawyer if he intended to kill his wife, he answered "no" and that he "was completely blocked."
The accused indicated that, after the strangulation, he went to the children's room to check on them and called 112 while trying to revive the victim.
Deteriorated cohabitation and marital conflict
In response to the prosecutor, the defendant described an increasingly deteriorated cohabitation since the birth of their children. He explained that he started psychological therapy in 2022 after feeling "bad" following the minors' baptism, recounting recurring arguments about the relationship with both families, trips, and the division of household chores.
He also pointed out that he received a proposal for a regulatory divorce agreement with alimony that he considered "very high" and that his wife had kicked him out of the house on two occasions before they got married. "I was never going to abandon my two children," he asserted.
Conflicting expert reports and sentence request
The accused's statement comes after private experts presented by the defense argued yesterday that the soldier suffered from "emotional deterioration" resulting from years of accumulated tension, stress, and conflicts, pointing to an anxious-depressive state and a possible loss of control triggered by a final "provocation."
In contrast, prison psychiatrists have ruled out that the defendant suffered from a mental disorder that significantly affected his cognitive and volitional capacities at the time of the events.
The Prosecutor's Office is seeking 27 years in prison for him for a crime of murder with the aggravating factors of kinship and gender, as well as for the psychological injuries caused to the couple's two minor children.