Crime of Lucio Dupuy: the intimacy of the ruling and the pain that did not calm the harshest sentence

The president of the court Alejandra Ongaro read punctually, at 12 noon, the sentence to

for Lucio's mother, Magdalena Esposito Valenti, and his girlfriend Abigail Páez.

Thus, the trial for the crime of Lucio Dupuy came to an end.

His father, Christian, lowered his head and grimaced.

Also the grandfather, Ramón -a symbol of his grandson's case- approached the lawyer José Mario Aguerrido with a nervous gesture, who showed an attitude of caution.

Ongaro accompanied by judges Daniel Saez Zamora and Andrés Olié, announced the sentence of the mother and the girlfriend for the crimes committed against Lucio, 5 years old: the sentence was life imprisonment, the harshest sentence in the penal system of Argentina .

“We expected something else.

We lacked a little more”,

said the plaintiff lawyer Mario Aguerrido.

It was because the court rejected the request for the criminal accessory of article 52, imprisonment for an indefinite period.

Then he put a nuance when they told him that the prosecutor Verónica Ferrero said that the convicted women should serve five decades in prison:

Ramón Dupuy, accompanied by Lucio's grandmother, Silvia Gómez and her daughter Cynthia, and surrounded by other relatives, crossed the flowerbeds at the exit of the Judicial Center: “This was not the ruling.

They did not give us what the lawyer asked for, ”he said crying and shocked, hugging one of the protesters who was waiting for him outside the court.

The court stressed that the sentence imposed is the highest in the Argentine penal system.

Prosecutor Verónica Ferrero agrees with the ruling.

"The life sentence given by the judges

. He has no chance of being released for the crimes that were convicted," said the prosecutor.

They will not be able to request, with the current laws, parole even at 50 years of age, she remarked.

Ferrero calmly anticipated that he will appeal the acquittal of the mother, "Magui" Espósito Valenti on 

.

"Not because it aggravates the penalty. But that the events that occurred are established," he said,

The posters with the photo of Lucio dressed the billboards with which the passage to the Criminal Court building of the Santa Rosa judicial center was closed.

"Lucio Abel Dupuy, present."

When the second name, Abel, is read, the words of the boy himself resonate, who, at just two years old, said his full name, playing with his grandfather Ramón in a video that went viral after the crime.

"Where are the people?

I am from Toay, there they say that there is a lot of violence and that you have to help the children.

Why didn't they come”, says a woman on the verge of tears.

The walls of the judicial center are dotted with stickers.

“Gender discourse kills”, they say.

Lucio's photo with his injured eye can be seen in the background.

Protesters at the door of the La Pampa court, this Friday.

Photo: Telam

Lucio's crime, which occurred on November 26, 2021 in a neighborhood of Santa Rosa, shocked the country.

Also in other parts of the world.

Lucio was beaten to death, with his organs bursting.

And he suffered torture and mistreatment for several months, inflicted by his mother, Magdalena Espósito Valenti, and his girlfriend, Abigail Páez. 

The Santa Rosa Judicial Center, where the sentence is being read, is surrounded by police officers, patrol cars and police motorcycles.

But the police forces follow everything from afar.

"Lucio!!!!", shouts a woman.

"Present!!!

Now and always!!",

answered a few dozen men and women who went to express their pain and accompany the family.

They are much fewer than when the first sentence was read, the one that declared the guilt of the mother and the bride for the crimes committed against the pampas boy.

A man with a megaphone calls for the death penalty.

Another woman cries recounting her pain when she found out about Lucio's case.

They put together the flags and the parades.

The posters with the photo of Lucio and the phrase "Justice Now!"

they are blown away by the strong wind of La Pampa.

The ruling is triggered in the WhatsApp of the press.

The court, in the sentence, affirms that the sentence

.

They cite previous rulings and reject the request for a temporary sentence.

And he maintains, citing a ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice of Mendoza, that they must serve a sentence of 50 years in prison.

But none of that alleviates the infinite pain of Ramón Dupuy, Lucio's grandfather

.

With his face and eyes red and a lost look, like the one he had in the march on November 28, 2021, a day and a half after Lucio's death, Ramón walks bent over and leaning on his daughter Cynthia.

And they escape, looking for a relief that doesn't come.

A few hours after learning of the ruling, the Dupuy family lawyer, José Mario Aguerrido, calmly analyzed that the sentence for Espósito Valenti and Abigail Páez was the harshest in the judicial system.

"Perpetual is perpetual. That's what we came looking for. It's literal perpetual: they don't come out anymore," he said,

He anticipated that they will appeal to the Court of Criminal Impeachment that Lucio's murder was

And he said that the mother must also be convicted of

.

"It was a hate crime. The autopsy shows it. The only rational way to explain what happened is hatred of the male gender. That is the motivation," said the lawyer Aguerrido.

He confirmed that they will go for the responsibilities of the doctors and what happened in the kindergarten.

Ramon Dupuy already had another face.

He was no longer disengaged, like few after the ruling.

," said the grandfather.

That fight continues, the one that started on November 26, 2021.

The Pampa.

Correspondent

PS 

look also

Crime of Lucio Dupuy: how Magdalena Esposito and Abigail Páez, prisoners in San Luis, found out about the life sentence

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