Francisco Javier Almeida, the murderer of the nine-year-old boy Álex, has been sentenced to a reviewable permanent prison sentence for the death of the minor and to 15 years in prison for the crime of sexual assault.
The Jury Court that prosecuted the crime that occurred on October 28, 2021 in Lardero (La Rioja) unanimously found Almeida guilty of both crimes.
The magistrate of the La Rioja Provincial Court who presided over the trial has decided to impose the maximum penalty that is included in the Criminal Code and that was requested during the hearing by the prosecutor and the private and popular accusations.
In the sentence for the murder and rape of Álex, of more than 200 pages, it is considered proven that on October 28, 2020, Almeida deceived Álex to his house when he was in the street disguised and playing in a park with Other children.
Once at his house, he sexually assaulted her and caused her to die by suffocation.
The condemned man, with the lifeless body of the minor in his arms, was surprised by a neighbor and by police officers on the stairs of the same building where he committed the crime.
The magistrate maintains in the ruling that the facts prosecuted constitute a crime of murder with treachery whose sole purpose was to hide the sexual assault.
The death was intentional and the treachery occurred due to the impossibility of the minor being able to defend himself.
The sentence also prohibits the murderer from residing in La Rioja and from communicating or approaching Álex's parents and brother for a period of 10 years after serving time in prison.
The jury declared the sexual assault on the minor with "extreme" violence proven due to the injuries found on Álex's body, other than those that caused his death.
The sentence considers that the injuries "evidence the use of a special brutality, a violence that exceeded that which is inherent in the commission of the crime."
The magistrate does not give credibility to the version offered by the defendant during the trial.
Almeida assured that the minor voluntarily collaborated in the sexual acts, something that, according to the court ruling, is "totally unreasonable, implausible and contrary to the most elementary common sense."
After the rape, according to the jury members, Almeida suffocated the child with "extremely strong pressure for 3-5 minutes" until he died.
The sentence concludes that the force used by the murderer was even greater than that used in hangings.
And that this occurred when "the possibility of defending the minor was non-existent."
It makes it clear that Almeida had "direct intent to kill" in order to hide the sexual assault that he had perpetrated a few moments before inside his home.
Almeida, 55 years old, will serve a reviewable permanent prison sentence, since he meets two of the four cases contemplated in the Penal Code.
In this case, he is the author of the murder of a minor under 16 years of age or of a particularly vulnerable person, and has also committed a murder after a sexual assault.
The magistrate explains in his sentence that to impose the maximum sentence for the rape (15 years in prison) he has taken into account the age of the victim, his inability to defend himself, the recidivism of the convicted person and his extreme danger.
The sentence also recognizes the right of the parents to receive compensation for civil liability of 300,000 euros for each of the parents and 60,000 for the brother, despite the insolvency declared by the convicted person.
In its resolution, it states that "any number could never compensate for the damage caused" and any economic compensation "fell very short" because "Álex had his whole life ahead of him and his death has generated for his parents a lifelong and irremediable desolation ”.
The father of the murdered child stated in the trial that the relatives are "like the living dead."
The decision to impose reviewable permanent prison on him is also justified, according to the judge, by the aggravating circumstance of recidivism, since Almeida had previously been convicted of the same crimes and his criminal record was not cancelled.
In 1989, when the convict was 22 years old, he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl, a neighbor of his, and a year later he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
He spent a short time in freedom, since in August 1998 he raped and stabbed a 26-year-old real estate agent several times.
For these crimes he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
If the third degree that was granted to him in April 2020 had not been mediated despite the contrary opinion of the technicians at the El Dueso prison (Cantabria), where he was serving a sentence,
It is the second time that the Provincial Court of La Rioja imposes reviewable permanent prison as a penalty.
The first time was in the case of another minor, the five-year-old Carolina, who was murdered by her mother in a hotel room in Logroño.
This sentence was handed down a year ago, on March 14, 2022 and was ratified by the Superior Court of Justice of La Rioja and confirmed on February 3 by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.
