The popular jury has found the three defendants guilty of murder for the asphyxiation death of a man they met in a bar during the Fallas of 2024, with whom they shared "36 hours of partying drinking and consuming cocaine", and whom they assaulted and tortured in his apartment in Manises to obtain his bank account details and appropriate the 126,000 euros they knew he had.
In addition, the court declares them responsible for a crime of robbery with violence for taking the victim's mobile phone, his cards, and his personal documentation. However, the jury appreciates in the case of the accused the highly qualified mitigating circumstance of confession, given that she called the Local Police and accompanied the officers to the deceased's home, while for Darwin, another of the defendants, a mitigating circumstance derived from his addiction to narcotic substances is taken into account.
The events, tried last week in the Valencia Court, date back to the Fallas of 2024. The three defendants —Rosa, 37, her cousin Antonio, 35, and Darwin, 22— were on the night of March 18 in a bar where they met the victim, José María, 47. In the early morning of March 19, they decided to go together to José María's home, in the Valencian town of Manises, to continue the celebration.
During those hours, it was the victim who paid for the drinks, the drugs, and even the taxi ride to the place where they bought the substance, by sending bizums to Rosa and Darwin's phones so they could make the payments. In one of those bizum receipts sent by José María to the defendants, it was indicated that he had 126,000 euros in his current account.
The three remained in the victim's home until approximately 6:30 p.m. on March 19, at which point they left and returned to Rosa's home. On the way and already at her house, they devised a plan to take José María's money. That plan included hiring a prostitute and supplying her with sedatives, relaxants, and cocaine to obtain the bank details. Likewise, according to the public prosecutor's office, they gathered latex gloves and other utensils available in Rosa's home to ensure the operation went as planned.
Around 4:30 AM on March 20, after repeated contact with the victim, the defendants returned to their home. Darwin entered first and, a few minutes later, the other two did. The instant José María leaned over the table to snort a line of cocaine, one or several of the accused held him by the neck with the intention of strangling him, applying the technique known as a "lion killer."
The man began to scream and ask for help, but the defendants lunged at him, hit him, and kicked him while trying to silence him by stuffing cloth rags and cellulose handkerchiefs into his mouth, which prevented him from breathing, while demanding that he provide them with his bank details and warning him that if he did not, they would kill him.
The torture lasted for about two hours, during which they forced José María to ingest liquids with ammonia and various pills, shaking him so that he would not lose consciousness while insisting that he reveal the codes. Finally, José María died of asphyxiation.