The First Section of the Provincial Court will try between July 27 and 29 four defendants accused of attempting to kill three men by causing a fire in an occupied house in Arrecife. The Prosecutor's Office is asking for prison sentences of 23 years for three of them and 22 and a half years for the other defendant.
The events took place at approximately 04:00 hours on August 19, 2019, in a building located on Blas Cabrera Topham Street in Arrecife. According to the Prosecutor's Office's indictment, the defendants accessed it "with the intention of illegally seizing the money and drugs that might be inside," after having "agreed in common and prior agreement on the execution of a preconceived plan."
In the house, which was owned by an entity and was "in a state of abandonment," three men usually stayed overnight, who "at that time were sleeping in one of the rooms."
To access the house, the defendants "fractured the door of the street", which "was closed with some props". They also opened the door of the room in which the occupants of the property were "also fracturing it, since it was closed with a chain and a padlock."
Once inside the room, the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that two of the defendants, who respond to the initials R.T.G. and J.M.H.A and who "carried knives", began "to beat their occupants and demand that they hand over their money". Meanwhile, the other two defendants, C.D.H.V and L.Y.A.R. "entered and left the room and watched, in addition to telling the other two who of the occupants of the room had the money."
Thus, it is pointed out that the defendants "kicked, punched and headbutted them while threatening them with knives and saying 'we are going to kill you, if you don't give me the money'". Specifically, it is pointed out that R.T.G. put a knife to one of the men's necks and that both he and the defendant J.M.H.A "hit" the other two occupants of the house, causing one of them to "lie unconscious on the floor" and seizing the wallet of the other, "which contained 15 euros."
Unconscious and tied hand and foot
Finding the man they left unconscious on the floor of the room, R.T.G and J.M.H.A. "they tied him hand and foot using flanges for it." Then, R.T.G left the room for a moment, while J.M.H.A "stood in the door, brandishing the knives with a threatening attitude to prevent its occupants from leaving" and the other two defendants "continued watching the house."
When R.T.G returned, the Prosecutor's Office affirms that "he was carrying a gallon full of gasoline that he spilled on the floor and the mattresses that were in the room", proceeding he and J.M.H.A to "set fire" with the "intention of destroying the property, also causing a patrimonial damage." This caused "a strong explosion" starting "a fire in the room" from which the four defendants "ran out", "leaving the door blocked from the outside to prevent its three occupants from leaving it with the intention of causing their death."
Finally, one of the occupants "managed to jump through a window to an interior patio from which he was able to leave the house" and another "managed to break the door of the room, which the defendants had blocked, leaving through it." However, once outside he realized that the other man "had not been able to leave the property", being "in a state of semi-consciousness and tied hand and foot", so he "was forced to return to the room in flames" to rescue him, taking him "dragging him out of the property."
According to the indictment, the man who had to be rescued suffered burns that "came to pose a risk to his life" and that "took 98 days to heal, of which 41 were of severe loss of quality of life due to hospital admission and 57 of moderate loss of quality of life." This man, as La Voz reported at the time, was transferred in critical condition to the Burns Unit of the La Paz Hospital in Madrid and, according to reports, was left with sequelae, "which constitute a moderate aesthetic damage."
As for the other two occupants of the house, one of them suffered burns on his legs and injuries derived from smoke inhalation that took 21 days to heal, and the other a cut wound on one leg, as well as injuries derived from smoke inhalation, needing 12 days of healing.
With respect to the damages caused by the fire in the house, "they have been expertly assessed at 420 euros in what respects to the property, in view of its ruinous state prior to the events, and at 180 euros in terms of the furniture it contained."
Compensation for more than 28,000 euros
The Public Prosecutor's Office considers that the aforementioned facts constitute three crimes of attempted murder, a crime of robbery with violence and intimidation in a inhabited house, and a crime of arson. For the crime of robbery, he asks for four years and six months in prison for R.T.G and five years in prison for the other three defendants due to the aggravating circumstance of recidivism, while for the other crimes he requests 18 years in prison for each of the four defendants.
Likewise, he claims compensation for the victims, for one of them of 25,993 euros and for the other two of 1,181 and 855 euros respectively. Similarly, the Prosecutor's Office asks that the defendants compensate the legal representative of the entity that owns the house in the amount of 600 euros.
