Jury finds six defendants guilty in Juan Carlos Tejera murder case

The five defendants accused of beating Juan Carlos Tejera Acosta to death in March 2015 in Lanzarote and the woman prosecuted as an accomplice have been found guilty, according to the verdict announced on Friday night by the Jury court that has judged them and whose pronouncement has been unanimous.

According to information provided by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), the Jury believes it has been proven that the five defendants are the perpetrators of the crimes of murder with cruelty, robbery with violence, illegal detention and membership of a criminal organization, and the defendant Tania R.R., an accomplice to all of them.

After the reading of the verdict, the prosecutor and the private prosecution exercised by the family and partner of the deceased maintained their request for a sentence of 25 and 27 years in prison, respectively, for José Carlos C.H., Néstor David P.P., Angelo D.D., Juan Antonio D.R., Antonio Enrique G.G. , and 14 years for Tania R.R.

The jury considered sufficient the indirect evidence collected by the prosecutions and presented during the trial sessions to demonstrate the co-authorship of those involved in the crime.

For the presiding magistrate of the court, Secundino Alemán, both circumstances, the absence of witnesses and direct evidence and the fact that there were several perpetrators, have conferred "special ingredients" for the Jury, as he highlighted in the public hearing held yesterday Friday at the request of one of its members to request a clarification on the wording of the verdict, in application of article 57.1 of the Jury Law.

The events began in February 2015, when some of the accused traveled to Lanzarote to obtain information from the victim, to whom they installed a device in his vehicle to have him located at all times.

According to the prosecutor, this is a gang that acts with "extreme violence against its victims."

On the night of March 12, 2015, Juan Carlos Tejera was intercepted in the garage of his house, tied hand and foot, beaten all over his body and put in the back seat of his vehicle, in which he was transferred to a cave located in the Montaña Mina de Arrecife landfill, which they had conditioned and in which his body was found.

The defendants intended to steal money from Juan Carlos Tejera that they believed he was hiding from profits he may have obtained from drug trafficking, a crime for which the deceased had served time.

The victim suffered severe traumatic brain injury, multiple fractures and intracranial vascular involvement, which, after a prolonged agonizing period, caused his death.

The lifeless body of Juan Carlos Tejera was found on March 21, 2015