José Guatativot Rodríguez Almeida, who was arrested last September after leading a police chase in Arrecife and trying to escape from the police by jumping from car to car, will face trial on April 30 for gender violence, in which the Prosecutor's Office is requesting a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for him.
This trial was scheduled to take place last November but was finally suspended. Just as the oral hearing was about to begin, the defendant renounced his lawyer, so, after deliberating, the Provincial Court decided to postpone the trial and give José Guatativot a deadline to find a private lawyer or, failing that, assign him a new one ex officio. In this way, April 30 was set as the new date for the trial.
Thus, next Tuesday, José Guatativot, known as 'El Guati', must answer for events that allegedly took place on October 13, 2016 and that, according to the Prosecutor's Office, constitute a crime of illegal detention and another of minor threats in the context of violence against women.
Specifically, the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that José Guatativot Rodríguez went to his partner's home one night and said "either you get in the car or I'll mess you up", to which she agreed "so that her parents, with whom she resided at that time, would not notice the problems she had with the accused, and on the condition that she could get out of the car when turning the corner". Once inside the vehicle "and with the intention of depriving her of her freedom", the accused "closed the locks and began to drive at excessive speed, dodging vehicles and overtaking improperly" through Arrecife.
Death threats to his partner
Later, according to the Prosecutor's Office, the accused left Arrecife and drove in the direction of Las Nieves while "with the intention of intimidating" his partner he said "whore, bitch" and threatened her with death, managing "to frighten the victim who, upon reaching the end of the dirt road to the Ermita de las Nieves", took advantage "that the accused braked the car abruptly to get out".
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the accused then tried "to retain her by grabbing her by the pajama pants and telling her to get in", to which the woman, "using the minimum force necessary and in order to get rid of the accused, struggled with him, managing to escape and run down the road".
One day after the events, the Investigating Court number 1 of Arrecife agreed in favor of the victim the prohibition of the accused approaching her within a radius of 500 meters or communicating with her.
Now, in addition to requesting six and a half years in prison, the Prosecutor's Office asks that he be deprived of the right to possess and carry weapons for a period of three years and that he be prohibited from approaching the victim "at a distance of no less than 500 meters" or communicating with her also for three years.
He was sent to provisional prison after the Arrecife chase
José Guatativot Rodríguez has numerous police records and was sent to provisional prison after the events that occurred in September of last year in Arrecife, accused of crimes of robbery with force, robbery with violence, reckless driving, driving under the influence of narcotic substances, assault on authority and documentary falsification.
And it is that, the magistrate of the Investigating Court number 2 of Arrecife considered that there were sufficient indications that he had entered "violently" into a house together with an accomplice, that he had appropriated the vehicle that was parked in the garage, that he had modified the license plate of the car and that he had circulated on public roads practicing in the journey a bag snatching by the method of pulling.
Then, he was chased by the police, committing in the course of this escape "at full speed all kinds of irregularities, leaving the road, running red lights, attacking the agents and finally, when he was intercepted, offering resistance to his arrest".
In fact, José Guatativot Rodríguez was arrested thanks to citizen collaboration. And it is that, after the police chase that culminated in Triana Street, after José Guatativot and his accomplice crashed into a driving school vehicle and overturned, he tried to escape by jumping from the crashed car to the hood of other vehicles. However, he did not achieve his purpose thanks to several citizens who collaborated with the agents and made his arrest possible, of which images were even echoed by different national media.
