Logroño, Mar 20 (EFE).- The Provincial Court of Logroño hosts from this Monday the jury trial against Francisco Javier Almeida, considered the alleged perpetrator of the murder and sexual assault of the nine-year-old boy Álex, when he was playing in a park in Lardero ( La Rioja) on October 28, 2021.
It is the second time that Almeida, who has been on probation since April 2020, has faced a jury trial. In the first, he was sentenced, by final judgment of 2001, to 30 years in prison for the murder and sexual assault of a real estate agent, which occurred in Logroño in 1998.
The prosecutor and the private accusations, exercised by Álex’s family; and popular, representing the Clara Campoamor Association, request a reviewable permanent prison sentence for the crime of murder and 15 years in prison for sexual assault.
According to the prosecutor’s account, around 8:30 p.m. on October 28, 2021, Almeida approached Álex, who was playing in the park disguised as “the exorcist’s girl”, and managed to get him to accompany him to his home with the excuse of take care of a puppy that he assured him he had in his house.
Once at home, Almeida took Álex to the bedroom, where he sexually assaulted him and, without the minor being able to defend himself or ask for help, immobilized him by putting his arm around his neck “with the intention of causing him to die by suffocation,” adds the letter from the Public Prosecutor.
The neighbors and police who were looking for Álex, after the notice given by one of the girls who were in the park, found Almeida on the stairs, with the body of the lifeless minor in his arms, since he tried to access the garage to get rid of of the corpse with his car.
After Almeida’s arrest right there and once the investigations were carried out by the Civil Guard, he entered the Logroño prison and seven days after the event he was transferred to the Segovia prison for security measures.
Almeida, whose sentence ended on August 17, 2023, agreed to the third degree with the opposition of the majority of the members of the Treatment Board of the El Dueso prison (Cantabria), where he was interned, because they considered that there was a risk of recidivism.
Last January, with the application of the law for the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, known as the law of only yes is yes, the sentence that had been imposed on him for the sexual assault he committed was reduced from 10 to 8 years. in 1998.
In addition, this man, born in 1967, was already sentenced in 1993 to 7 years in prison for sexual assault on a minor.