José Guatativot Rodríguez, known as 'El Guati', has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for a crime of illegal detention committed against his former partner. The sentence, handed down by the Second Section of the Provincial Court, also imposes a ban on approaching the victim within a distance of 500 meters for five and a half years.
The events for which he has been convicted occurred in October 2016, the day after his partner of ten years decided to end the relationship, but it is not the only case he has pending. In fact, almost two years later, El Guati occupied the covers of media throughout Spain, when in September 2018 he was arrested after leading a police chase in Arrecife and trying to escape from the agents by jumping from car to car.
In this ruling, the Court considers it proven that the accused went to the house of his ex-partner's parents at 9:45 p.m., driving her car, and urged her to get into the vehicle, saying "either you get in or I'll mess you up". According to the ruling, she agreed "to prevent her parents from noticing the problems she had with the accused", but "on the condition that when leaving the neighborhood he would return the vehicle", since he had taken it a few hours earlier.
"Let's go see the Virgen de Las Nieves"
"Once inside the car, the accused locked the doors and without stopping when leaving the neighborhood and in order to prevent her from getting out of the vehicle, began to drive recklessly, at excessive speed, without stopping at traffic lights and stop signs or paying attention to the repeated requests" of his ex-partner, who according to the ruling "asked him to let her out".
Afterwards, "after leaving Arrecife, the accused drove in the direction of Las Nieves", according to the ruling, calling his ex-partner "bitch" and "slut", threatening her with death and saying "let's go see the Virgin". In this regard, the ruling reproduces the testimonies that were heard in the trial and that referred to that area as a habitual place for suicides.
Always according to the ruling, upon reaching the dirt road of the access to the Las Nieves hermitage, the victim "managed to get out of the vehicle, taking advantage of a sudden braking by the accused", who "tried to retain her by grabbing her pajama pants and telling her to get in, starting a struggle". Finally, she "managed to escape and run down the road", asking for help first from a driver she found and then from the officers who came to the scene.
Dismissed drug use as a mitigating factor
During the trial, El Guati acknowledged that they had an "argument" and stated that "it may be that they insulted each other", but denied having threatened or detained his ex-partner against her will. However, he also stated that "he did not remember what happened because he was under the influence of drugs".
In fact, in addition to asking for his acquittal, his defense also requested that drug use be taken into account as a mitigating factor in the event of a conviction. However, the Court has rejected this claim, stating that "the condition of consumer is not enough for the appreciation of a mitigating factor". In this regard, it recalls that there is an emergency report from that same night in which "no mention is made of a possible impairment of his mental faculties".
Regarding El Guati's version of the events, the ruling concludes that the statement he made at the trial is "absolutely contradictory" with respect to what he stated in the Court of Instruction, when he denied having driven the vehicle, maintaining that it was the complainant who was driving and even that she had "grabbed him by the neck" when getting out of the car. Afterwards, in the oral hearing he changed the story and even admitted that "it may be that during the journey she was scared", although he insisted that "it didn't have to be that way".
However, the ruling gives credit to the victim's testimony, emphasizing that "no reason for resentment is appreciated" and that "it presents a clear plausibility that is corroborated by other evidence and has been persistent, in the fundamental, in all the statements he has made". Thus, El Guati is convicted of a crime of illegal detention, although he is acquitted of the other crime of threats for which he was accused. In this regard, the Court argues that these threats were "linked to the crime of illegal detention", because they were uttered at that time and "as a means to reinforce the deprivation of liberty". That is why he is only convicted of the first of the crimes, although specifying that he does not apply the minimum penalty contemplated in the Penal Code, which is four years, precisely because of the existence of these threats, which lead him to increase it by half a year more.
