Logroño, Mar 21 (EFE).- Álex, the boy murdered in Lardero (La Rioja) after being sexually assaulted had “no chance of defense and could not even scream”, finding himself in an isolated home and alone with his attacker, has assured the lieutenant of the Judicial Police who led the investigation.
This Civil Guard officer has testified this Tuesday in the second session of the trial with a popular court that is held in the Provincial Court of Logroño against Francisco Javier Almeida, for events that occurred on October 28, 2021, while he was on probation for a murder and sexual assault committed in 1998, for which he had been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The prosecutor and the private accusations, by Álex’s family, and the popular one, represented by the Clara Campoamor Association, demand permanent reviewable prison for Almeida for the crime of murder and 15 years in prison for sexual assault; and his defense calls for acquittal.
Based on the evidence obtained during the investigation, the lieutenant stressed that the defendant had no signs that the child had defended himself and stressed that the assailant caused the child “an extremely violent death and even more sexual assault.”
He has specified that, according to the images from the elevator camera of his portal, around 8:07 p.m. he went to the nearby Entre Ríos park, where “he sat on a bench to observe, he selected his victim randomly, the most vulnerable, and he convinced her to accompany him to his home” to see a pet.
The traces of the footwear in his house determined that the 9-year-old boy went to the bedroom, where they found synthetic fiber hairs that correspond to Álex’s wig, who was dressed up for the Halloween party; and also one of his pants.
The autopsy report, he added, confirms that the minor was alive at the time of the sexual assault, after which he died by strangulation, with the child leaning on Almeida’s body and the force exerted with his forearm pressed on his neck.
In eight of the minor’s nails there was biological material from the defendant, evidence that both were in contact, but not because he defended himself, given “the abysmal imbalance of forces and capacities between a child and an adult,” according to the lieutenant, who It has specified that the minor’s blood appeared on the defendant’s clothing, who had various injuries to his face and ear.
Barely 20 minutes later, he added, the accused dressed the child in a “hasty” manner and left with him in his arms and his pants fly down, until he was surprised in the doorway by several local police officers who were looking for him in the area.
He has also said that, after his arrest, “he did not seem drunk” and, when the Civil Guard had to evacuate him in a camouflaged vehicle to avoid a lynching by the neighbors gathered in the area, “he had no impediment in running. He perfectly followed the instructions, but did not speak ”and showed no signs of regret.
In the trial, a friend of Álex’s parents also testified, who was the owner of the picnic area where the two families were going to have dinner before the kidnapping of the minor.
He explained that it was his own daughter who told them that Álex had been taken by a man, who shortly before had asked her to accompany him to his house, and pointed in the direction in which they both left, with Almeida holding the child at the chest
From the door of his picnic area, this man has detailed that that afternoon, when he was watching his daughters playing, he saw a man sitting on a bench with the same physical appearance as Almeida, who had been on probation since April 2020.
“In the neighborhood there had been talk that a man invited them to see little birds in his house. When they left, my daughter followed them to the limit of the passage, which she could not cross, and then she came to the picnic area to let us know and we began to look for her, ”she recounted.
The local police officers who intervened in Álex’s search device have said that, when they surprised the defendant on the stairs of his building, with the already lifeless child in his arms, he tried to “hide it”, but he was “very calm” and told them that the minor had “passed out”, but not that he was going to seek help.
They have also confirmed that, the previous week, the Local Police of Lardero was notified that a child had assured that a man had invited him to his house with the excuse of showing him some birds.
In the trial, the then director of the Logroño prison – where Almeida entered the isolation module until his transfer to Segovia on November 4, 2021 – and an official, who collected a request from the accused addressed to the prison chaplain, declared to give him money with which to shop at the commissary.
In this letter, shown on the screens in the hearing room, Almeida acknowledged that he was “the one who killed Lardero’s child” and said that he had no forgiveness, he felt the damage he had caused to Álex’s family and his, so he understood that he had no one to help him, nobody gave him anything and everyone despised them.