In a recent judgment of the Provincial CourtThe court has imposed a sentence of 11 years in prison to the perpetrator of a shooting that took place in Sant Jordi in December 2022, after a heated argument in a supermarket. The court has considered it proven that the accused opened fire with intent to injure, although the bullets hit the victims’ vehicle and they managed to flee unharmed. The incident began inside the supermarket, where the defendant had a confrontation with one of the people present, who had mistakenly pointed him out as a participant in a previous assault. The argument escalated when they went out to the parking lot, where the father of one of the victims intervened to separate them. It was at that moment, when they were already on their way to their vehicles, that the defendant, according to the sentence, got out of the car and fired two shots with a short gun.
The court rules out aggravated assault, but upholds attempted manslaughter
The prosecution had requested a 20-year sentence for attempted murder, however, the court has reduced the sentence to attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons. The ruling indicates that although the defendant showed a clear intent to injure, the court did not observe malice aforethought, as the victims managed to flee and avoid a surprise attack. In turn, the court qualified the defendant’s version as “implausible and lacking in logic”, concluding that the shooting was a premeditated aggression.
Defense appeal underway
The defense, led by lawyer Alberto Ruiz de Alegría, has stated its intention to appeal the sentence, arguing that there is insufficient evidence to identify the convicted person as the author of the shots. During the trial, the defendant claimed that the gun was fired by another colleague, who, according to him, only intended to “scare” the victims.
