The Second Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas has sentenced Yovani Ernesto Pérez Martín to four and a half years in prison for a crime of attempted homicide, for having tried to burn his partner alive in his home in Soo. In addition, the sentence imposes two fines of 900 euros each for a minor crime of damages and one more for threats, in this case against agents of the Civil Guard when he was detained in the Costa Teguise barracks.
The events occurred in the early morning of August 22, 2015, when the accused went to the home where he lived with his partner and began to bang on the door to try to enter. Unable to do so, according to the sentence, he broke the glass of the bedroom window and entered the house carrying a container of diesel, which was at the entrance and which he had previously hit, spilling part of its contents on the door.
Once inside, he went to his partner, "pushing her and taking away the mobile phone" she was carrying. "Then", the sentence states, "with the intention of ending his partner's life, he began to spray the entire house with diesel, also impregnating" the victim and "saying as he did so that he was going to kill her". Afterwards, he took a lighter and tried to set fire to some curtains in the kitchen, inside which there was a butane cylinder, but he failed to light the lighter, which prevented the tragedy.
"I'm going to tear down the barracks"
In addition to four and a half years in prison, compared to the 10 requested by the Prosecutor's Office, the Court also imposes on Yovani Ernesto Pérez Martín the prohibition of approaching within 500 meters of the victim or communicating with her for 14 and a half years. Similarly, it orders him to pay compensation of 10,000 euros for moral damages and also condemns him to pay about 400 euros for the material damages he caused, both to his partner's mobile phone -which he threw to the ground after snatching it- and to the house.
Regarding the crimes of resistance and threats to the agents, he has been acquitted of the first and convicted of the second. Regarding the latter, the ruling considers it proven that the accused, while in the Civil Guard barracks of Costa Teguise after his arrest on August 22, "showed violent and aggressive activity, hitting the wall and the door of the cell, urinating inside, breaking the lining and the mattress of the cell in which he was located and addressing the agents" with expressions such as "I am going to return with friends and I am going to kill you all", "I am going to come with a backhoe to tear down the entire barracks" and "I am going to tear down the barracks". For these last events, he has been imposed a fine of 900 euros, classifying it as a minor crime of threats.
