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Colombian Prosecutor's Office
(CNN Spanish) --
On November 22, the so-called Colombian "celebrity stylist", Mauricio Leal, 47, and his mother, Marleny Hernández, 67, were found dead at their residence in the municipality of La Calera, at north of Bogota.
At first it seemed like a suicide, later a perfect crime.
But, in the end, the investigators, the forensic experts and the Prosecutor's Office would reveal that the murderer was not so far away.
Since then, the case has been on the front page of the local media and became a permanent topic of conversation on social networks.
If at first there was talk of a possible suicide, it was because at the scene of the events the authorities found a handwritten letter supposedly by Mauricio Leal.
"I love them, but I can't take it anymore.
I leave everything to my nephews and brothers.
With all my love.
Forgive me, mom,” reads the bloody sheet with Leal's alleged signature published in various local media and which is part of the evidence of the Colombian Attorney General's Office.
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The investigators, however, had serious doubts from the beginning about Mauricio's alleged suicide and the previous murder of his mother. Many of the victims' friends publicly called for a full investigation of the case because they did not believe in the initial hypothesis. Among those who insisted that the Police and the Prosecutor's Office clarify the circumstances of the time, manner and place of the events was Jhonier Leal, the victim's brother, who appeared in several local media demanding prompt answers, since some people were already beginning to rumor that he could have something to do with the death of his brother and his mother.
The case took a turn on December 15 when Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa said his investigators had information indicating that it was not a suicide but a possible double homicide.
And that the elements found at the scene of the crime indicated that it had been committed between the night of November 21 and the morning of November 22.
The spotlights turned to Jhonier Leal who continued to deny any involvement in the events in various media outlets.
The authorities continued with the investigations and carried out several raids on Mauricio Leal's beauty salons, houses and businesses to look for evidence and clues that would lead them to confirm the new hypothesis.
And that was how on January 14, agents from the Technical Investigations Corps of the Prosecutor's Office, CTI, arrived at Jhonier's residence and captured him as the main suspect in the murder of his brother and mother.
"I would never have laid a hand on my mother or my brother," said Jhonier Leal before the guarantee control judge moments before his capture was declared legal by the official.
At the hearing, which was broadcast live on the internet, prosecutor Mario Andrés Burgos revealed chilling details of what his investigators have been able to determine so far. The prosecutor in the case said in his argument before the court that he had probative material indicating that Jhonier Leal was the only person who had been in the residence between 11:37 PM on November 21 and noon on November 22, time in which the experts from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences established that the events occurred.
“Enough time […] to attack with a knife, first your lady mother in her room. In the room where she was asleep. And then, Jhonier, go to the room of your brother, Mauricio Leal Hernández. Oh surprise, Jhonier, that with the same knife that you attacked your mother, you attack your brother Mauricio Leal Hernández with bad luck, Jhonier, that knife remained embedded, the blade, in Mauricio Leal's body for later, and I will show you the plan and you know it very well, you go a long way to the kitchen to get another knife to cause certain injuries, intimidate it, ”said prosecutor Burgos at the hearing for charges, staring at the accused.
Continuing with the shocking story, the official indicated that "Although the letter he leaves is true, it is your brother's handwriting, but with some diminished traces [...], insufficient, in which he leaves you his fortune."
This to indicate that this would have been the main motive for the "cold-blooded" murders, according to the representative of the accusing entity.
The Prosecutor's Office informed the accused that if he accepted the charges of homicide in a successive homogeneous contest and concealment of evidentiary material, he could obtain a reduction of up to 50 percent of the sentence.
Jhonier, after consulting with his defense attorney Álvaro Rojas Sánchez, did not accept having committed the murders, which meant facing criminal proceedings that could lead to a sentence of up to 50 years in prison without the right to reduce his eventual sentence.
When making the defense of his attorney, the lawyer Álvaro Rojas told the guarantee judge: “These situations are the ones claimed by the defense that do not meet the requirements of that reasonable inference required by the legislator for this purpose.
[…] You are alone with a few small circumstantial situations that do not reach that title of reasonable inference”.
Rojas insisted before the court that the process should then be annulled for alleged violation of due process.
But the guarantee judge did not accept those arguments and, on the contrary, agreed with the Prosecutor's Office and therefore maintained the legality of the capture and the imputation of charges.
However, this Tuesday, when the public hearing resumed, Jhonier Leal surprisingly accepted the charges and took responsibility for the murder of his mother and brother. "First of all today I had the opportunity to speak with my lawyer and, after being duly advised, I have made a very important and very personal decision: freely and voluntarily to accept the charges through an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, and I am grateful for the opportunity to express my repentance, asking for forgiveness first of all from my family and my children, the victims and all of Colombia for the events that occurred, and to commit myself that a situation of such magnitude will never happen again."
Jhonier Leal must now face his guilt in the murders and accept the sentence imposed by the hearing judge.
For his confession, he may have a reduction of up to 50 percent of the sentence, which is estimated to be an average of 50 years according to what is established in the penal code.
A tragic story of which lurid details are just beginning to be known in the midst of legal proceedings but which reveals a complex web of ambitions, hatred and money.
Many in Colombia do not get out of their astonishment at the way in which the events occurred and the turn that this investigation has taken for the murder of the so-called "celebrity stylist" and his mother.
