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The five keys to the murder of the widow of the former president of the CAM, an unresolved and bogged-down case

2023-05-01T18:26:59.846Z


The case of the shooting death of Mari Carmen Martínez, who was the wife of Vicente Sala, is entangled in the courts. The Constitutional Court has paralyzed the repetition of the trial


The case of the murder of Mari Carmen Martínez, widow of Vicente Sala ―former president of the extinct Caja Mediterráneo (CAM)―, has entered a new judicial phase with an uncertain end.

The victim, a 72-year-old matriarch of a powerful family in full dispute over the patriarch's inheritance, was shot twice in the head while she was at a car wash in December 2016. The only person on trial for the death was Miguel López, his son-in-law, whom a popular jury acquitted.

The Superior Court of Justice confirmed the sentence, but the Supreme Court ordered a repetition of the trial, which was to be held again next Wednesday, May 3.

Last week, the Constitutional Court stopped everything after admitting a request for protection from the son-in-law.

These are the keys to an unsolved crime that remains entangled in the courts.

How did the crime happen?

On December 9, 2016, María del Carmen Martínez, the widow of Vicente Sala, a businessman from Alicante who directed CAM for 11 years, when it was still considered one of the main savings banks in Spain, died after receiving two shots to the head.

The victim had taken her car to be washed at a family dealership, Novocar.

She was still sitting in the vehicle when she was shot at point blank range.

She finds her, still alive, an employee, but she passed away after 10 minutes of agony.

The subsequent investigation found in the vehicle two bullet casings and Martínez's bag, in which were her purse and her money.

The weapon with which the shots were fired was not found.

In February 2017, the police arrested the only suspect, Miguel López, who was released from prison a month later, after paying a bail of 150,000 euros.

What happened at the trial?

In October 2019, the case reached the Alicante Court, in a popular jury trial presided over by magistrate Francisca Bru.

On one side stands the defendant's defense, which argues the lack of evidence.

There is no weapon, fingerprints or physical evidence to prove his guilt.

On the other side, the Prosecutor's Office, which is asking López for 24 years in prison for the crimes of murder and illegal possession of weapons, and the private prosecution, which represents the eldest son of the deceased, Vicente Jesús Sala.

The accusations focus on the power and money struggles that arise in the family after the death of the patriarch, who, when he died in 2011, distributes the entire conglomerate of family businesses between his wife and their four children: Vicente Jesús, Mar, Tania and Fanny, Lopez's wife.

However, the gold share of the most profitable firm, Samar Internacional,

dedicated to plastics, falls on the murder victim.

Both the prosecutor and the lawyer for the private prosecution maintain that the maneuvers of the three sisters to take control of the Sala emporium against the alliance between her mother and her older brother constitute the main motive for the murder.

What was the verdict?

On Friday, November 8, 2019, the nine members of the jury deliver their minutes to the magistrate, who, after summoning the parties, returns it because she detects that the object of the verdict is not well argued.

The next day, one of the members of the jury leaves due to illness and is replaced by her substitute.

On Sunday the 10th, after lunch, the second verdict is announced, which determines the acquittal of the defendant by six votes to three.

On Monday, the justice administration lawyer, with the trial already concluded, destroys the first record.

A week later, Bru issues the sentence, in which López's acquittal fails and attributes the crime to "an unknown perpetrator."

The scientific police, in the registration of the victim's vehicle, in December 2016. Manuel Lorenzo (EFE)

Why did the accusations appeal?

Vicente Jesús appeals the sentence for defenselessness, since he considers that the return and destruction of the first jury record prevents any higher court from reviewing the decision of the magistrate, who, in his opinion, could have manipulated the members of the jury to redirect his opinion towards the acquittal of López.

In the first instance, the Prosecutor's Office joins the appeal, dismissed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV).

The defense of the victim's son appeals to the Supreme Court, whose Criminal Chamber, presided over by Manuel Marchena, interprets that Bru's actions were incorrect and orders the repetition of the trial, with a particular vote against Judge Andrés Palomo del Arco.

Initially set for May 3, the new presiding magistrate was going to be José María Merlos.

Why has the Constitutional Court suspended the repetition?

López files an amparo petition before the Constitutional Court in October.

Among other arguments, his defense emphasizes that the defenselessness claimed by the other party does not exist, since none of the parties asked to see the first jury record and, therefore, no one prohibited them from accessing it.

He also focuses on the substitution of one of the jurors to reduce the value of a decision, the first verdict, that the group that later sentenced did not deliberate.

He highlights the fact that the Supreme Court cites a widespread view that the first ruling was supposedly damning.

This circumstance does not appear in Vicente Jesús' appeal, something that, if true, would come from a crime of revealing a secret and would have forced, in the best of cases, at least three members of the people's court to have changed their minds. in just one day.

Finally, it argues that an extrajudicial action, the destruction of the record with the trial resolved, should not lead to a repeat trial against a person who has already been acquitted on two occasions.

The Constitutional Court has admitted the amparo claim for processing and the Alicante Court has suspended the new process

sine die.

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Source: elparis

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