The popular court considers that Diego Montaña attacked Samuel Luiz because of his animosity towards LGBT people
The jury has declared three of the defendants guilty of murder with treachery for the crime of Samuel Luiz: Diego Montaña, which started the attack; Alejandro Freire, Alias Yumba, and Kaio Amaral. Alejandro Miguez, the last person arrested and the only man who was not in prison, has been convicted of being an accessory to murder, while Katy Silva, the ex-girlfriend of Mountain who was accused of preventing the victim's friend from helping him, has been acquitted.
The nine members of the non-professional court read their verdict on Sunday in the Provincial Court of A Coruña, after a long deliberation that began last Tuesday after a month-long trial and the testimony of nearly 80 witnesses and experts.
«Aversion to homosexuality»
The opinion concludes that Mountain "had an aversion to homosexuality”, a hatred that triggered the beating because “by words, gestures, way of dressing, tone of voice and physical appearance"of the victim"interpreted" that was gay.
Members of the people's court have been five days locked up to reach a consensus. They beat the record for jury deliberation in Galicia, thus surpassing the one that ruled in 2015 the guilt of murder of the parents of Asunta, which took four days.
Given the complexity of the case, the judge has asked them more than 100 questions in order to reach a verdict, which was delivered to them last Monday, although deliberations did not begin until Tuesday morning and continued until Saturday night.
Reading of the verdict of Samuel's murder
After the reading of the verdict, the prosecution has asked for Mountain 25 years from prison; for Yumba, 22 years old; for Amaral, 22 years old for murder and five for robbery with violence; and for Miguez, 13 years old.
The verdict concludes that both Mountain like Yumba and Amaral They chased and beat “in unity of action" to Samuel, which was seen “totally defenseless and helpless due to the large number of people attacking him" already the "continuity of the blows".
The conviction for murder with treachery of the first two was reached unanimously. That of Amaral, who was also found guilty of robbery with violence for taking the victim's mobile phone, was, however, voted by a majority of seven members. It was precisely this defendant who showed the greatest signs of shock while the spokesman for the jury read out his verdict for more than an hour.
aggravated homophobia
The popular court justifies the aggravating factor of homophobia Considering proven that Mountain He launched himself at Samuel, shouting, “Stop recording, I'll kill you, faggot”, misinterpreting that the victim was capturing images of him when in fact he was making a video call. Later, in a meeting with the rest of the gang in a city park, he stated: “Who told the fucking faggot to get involved in that, if he was a fucking faggot?".
Miguez He is considered an accessory to murder because “It is not proven that he hit”. The jury sees proven that he was in the “starting point of the aggression" but without touching Samuel, although he did act “in unity of action"with whom they beat him, preventing him from escaping and making it difficult for the murdered young man to be helped. The accused, the verdict adds, even struggled with one of the people who tried to help the victim.
Katy Silva She has been acquitted because the popular court maintains that “At first he tried to contain" to Mountain and that separated the friend from Samuel for "break up with your boyfriend" of aggression.
Images from street cameras treated with artificial intelligence
The investigation of the crime has been complex. The beating that ended the life of Samuel It was recorded by street cameras on the promenade of the beach of Riazor, blurry images that were processed with artificial intelligence by a company from A Coruña to make them clearer and make it easier for investigators to identify the attackers and detail their participation in the riot.
That video has been the main subject of controversy in the month-long trial. For the prosecution and the police officers who testified, the recording proved that the four men in the dock participated continuously in the almost six minutes of aggression and in the pursuit of the victim for 150 metres, until the point where he collapsed. The defence, on the other hand, argued that neither the images nor the testimonies allow the actions of each defendant to be identified individually. In the end, only three of them have been convicted of murder.
The prosecution argued during the trial that the five defendants were co-authors of the murder, that they killed Samuel between them, four of them attacking him directly and the only woman in the gang, preventing him from being helped by the friend who was with him. According to the forensic experts, the 24-year-old He did not die from a lethal blow but from the sum of many punches and kicks.
Faced with these accusations, the defense strategy of the five young men sitting in the dock has changed. The lawyers of Mountain and Freire insisted in their closing argument that their clients had no intention of killing Samuel, while Amaral's clients, Miguez and Silva They asked for his acquittal, assuring that at no time did they participate in the beating.
Reactions from LGBT+ groups
The president of Alas A Coruña, the LGBT collective who carried the popular accusation, Ana Garcia Fernandez, has been satisfied that it has been demonstrated that "that there was homophobia in this brutal murder«. «What they shout when killing a person does matter and I think it has been made clear, at least by this sentence.", his lawyer concluded, Mario Pozzo-Citro.
The State Federation of LGBTI+ (FELGTBI+), for its part, considers that justice has been done with the verdict of the popular jury and shows that "We live in a strong state of law against hatred«. «Killing at the cry of 'fucking faggot''It is not a way of speaking, but of verbalizing the hatred that leads to murder and the cruelty with which in this case they ended Samuel's life.", its president said, Paula Iglesias.
He also asks not to "minimizeNor "justify this type of expressions«. «Being murdered because of your sexual orientation is a hate crime. Being attacked because of your gender identity is also a hate crime. hate crime", has added.
La State Network of Observatories Against LGTBI-phobia He recalled that "Three years ago, when Samuel was lying on the streets of A Coruña, there were those who tried to insert into public opinion a narrative contrary to the homophobic motivation of the murder. Today, after the verdict of the sentence that confirms the LGTBIfobic intention of the murder, forgiveness should be asked for and reparation demanded. A forgiveness and reparation in Samuel's social and emotional environment, a forgiveness and reparation in the entire LGTBI+ community for disregarding what we believed to be obvious and honorable to justice from the first moment..
Mar Cambrollé, President of the Trans Platform Federation, has been more critical of the sentence and has recalled in X that "in his murder participated 13 people, only 5 were charged, the prosecution only requested aggravating circumstances for hate crime due to homophobia for 2" and that "4 of the 5 have been convicted and only 1 person with aggravating circumstances of hate crime due to homophobia.
