The Jury Court has unanimously found the young man from Muros (A Coruña) accused of ending his father's life with an axe in April 2023 responsible for a murder offense. During the oral hearing, the defendant maintained that he was "very high" from pills he was taking for his stomach and anxiety, a claim that the experts dismissed.
In the reading of the verdict, the Jury has rejected both the conditional suspension of the sentence and the request for a pardon, taking into account the seriousness of the events. It bases this on witness statements and the evidence presented, including the injuries sustained by the victim, ruling out that there had been a prior struggle or a significant alteration of the defendant's capacities.
In the final session of the trial, held at the Provincial Court of A Coruña, the Public Prosecutor requested 23 years in prison and the private prosecution requested 25 years, both for a murder offense. In their opinion, the defendant acted according to a "premeditated plan." "He executed it," emphasized the Public Ministry, agreeing with the private prosecution.
The young man's defense maintained that his client's cognitive and volitional capacities were affected and requested acquittal, arguing that he was "unimputable." Alternatively, they requested that, in the event of a conviction, the acts be classified as homicide and that the sentence not exceed ten years in prison.
Expert Reports
Contrary to the defense's thesis, the experts from the Institute of Legal Medicine of Galicia (Imelga), responsible for assessing the defendant's mental state, denied in court that he presented cognitive deterioration or psychotic symptomatology. "He has no pathology that modifies his perception of reality or psychotic episodes," explained one of the forensic doctors who conducted the tests.
This specialist did confirm that the defendant shows "obsessive thinking, classic hypochondria, which has repercussions on his life and makes him act in a certain way due to the suffering he endures." "This anxiety disorder leads to psychic exhaustion and a feeling of incomprehension," he detailed.
"He knew what he was doing and why he was doing it," stated another of the psychiatrists who treated him in the Emergency Department of the Santiago University Hospital Complex (Chus), ratifying that he understood the scope of his actions.
The Defendant Claimed He Was "High"
In his statement to the court, the young man insisted that he "was very high" from the medication he was taking, due, among other reasons, to "anxiety and outbreaks" he suffered. He recounted that before the incident he argued with his father over a mobile phone he demanded and that his father refused to give it to him. He also assured that it was the victim who first threw a knife at him, causing him a cut on the face.
"I didn't get aggressive, but I yelled at him," he said about that argument, during which, according to his version, his father threw the knife at him. Regarding what happened next, he stated that he barely remembered it because he "was very high" and denied having consumed drugs as, he assured, he did when he was 16 years old. Likewise, he expressed being "remorseful."
Account of the facts
In its indictment, the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that, at an undetermined time on the night of April 21 to 22, 2023, around 10:00 PM, the accused was with his father in the Esteiro area.
"At one point, with father and son in the kitchen of the dwelling, the accused, with the intent to attack his father's life, using an axe, attacked him, delivering strong and repeated blows to the head that caused his death on the spot due to destruction of vital centers."
The crime scene was the dwelling where both resided and carried out daily activities, such as daily meals. The father, however, sometimes slept in another apartment located on the upper floors of the same building.
The Public Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecution maintain that the attack occurred "suddenly and unexpectedly, when he was trustingly in the kitchen of the family home, alone with his own son and without the possibility of help from third parties." The death occurred as a result of a cranial injury.