The Supreme Court confirms the 25-year sentence of a man who in 2017 murdered his partner and then desecrated his corpse

After stabbing him twice that caused his death, he used the victim's card to buy tobacco at the store

MADRID, 14 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has confirmed this Wednesday the sentence to 25 years and 5 months in prison for the man who in 2017 murdered his partner, dismembered and desecrated the corpse, and placed it in a freezer chest.

The High Court thus endorses the judgment of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, which in turn confirmed the one handed down by the Jury Court of the Provincial Court of Madrid, and dismisses all the reasons alleged by the defendant's defense in his appeal.

The Chamber recalls that the sentence of 25 years in prison was imposed on him for a crime of murder with the aggravating circumstances of commission for reasons of gender and kinship, while the other 5 months were imposed on him for a crime of desecration of a corpse.

He adds that he was also convicted of a minor crime of fraud committed for using the woman's card to buy tobacco at the store after her death.

The resolution of the Criminal Chamber confirms the proven facts collected in the lower court ruling, and points out that everything happened on October 6, 2017 in the room that the couple had rented in a house in Alcalá de Henares.

The man bit the woman's arm, gave her a strong blow to the face that broke her jaw, and inflicted two fatal stab wounds on her back. A few hours later, she went down to the store and bought tobacco with the victim's card.

In the two days following the death of the woman, recalls the Supreme Court, "disrespecting due", stripped the body, cut it into seven parts and placed it in a freezer chest, placing the victim's genitals on top of the remains. , according to the account of the proven facts.

To avoid arousing suspicion, the convicted person sent WhatsApp, posing as her, to the owner of the house, to work and to his friends. On February 8, 2019, the frozen body was found and the convicted person was arrested in Alcalá de Henares.

The resolution of the court, presentation by magistrate Julián Sánchez Melgar, concludes that the way in which the convicted person acted was treacherous, contrary to what he maintains in his appeal where he questions the application of the aggravating circumstance of treachery, domestic or cohabitation, which makes the crime of manslaughter in murder.

It adds that "the physical complexion of the victim and the defendant, the relationship between the two and their coexistence in the same small room (which prevented the woman from even representing such aggression by the defendant), also given that the defendant gave a blow that caused the fracture in the jaw (...), making it impossible for him to defend himself to reach even minimally, to defend himself against two stab wounds, fatal of necessity, delivered in an enveloping manner and at a very short distance from the victim, and for her back, one can only conclude that Manuel Moreno's actions were treacherous. He first made sure that she would not be able to defend herself and then he killed her."

The Chamber recalls that there was no cut on the victim's hands, a typical and primary defensive wound when an attack with a knife occurs, which rules out that --the victim-- would have defended himself from the attack that ended his life . He also points out that only the condemned man's DNA was found in the two knives.

This is due - the Chamber specifies - to the fact that the attack occurred from behind and, previously, the defendant had already given her a strong blow that stunned her, inflicting the two fatal stab wounds on her from then on.

"The harshness of such a story, in which we see how the aggressor takes advantage of the contusion caused by the loss of consciousness -of the victim--, intensifies the appreciation of the aggravating circumstance of cohabitation or domestic treachery, of greater reproach, if fits, as long as the attacker takes advantage of a place where people feel safer, that is, in his own home to achieve his criminal purpose, without the victim being able to deploy any defensive means," the court underlined.

Regarding the crime of desecration, the Chamber explains that in this case the fraud required in this type of crime concurs, which requires that the subject have acted with knowledge of the desecration of the corpse and also with the conscience and will to disrespect due to the body of the victim with the specific act that must be classified as desecration.

For the Chamber "it is a very significant fact to place the genital organs of the woman, once deceased, in a pre-eminent place, as soon as the freezer is opened, used as a sarcophagus, in such a way that it constitutes a clear act of machismo (remember the gender aggravating factor applied in this case), the position held by such organs, which gives the act another degree of concealment, to also delve into an episode of clear desecration of the corpse of his partner".