The trial against the woman who "stabbed" her children in Arrieta on June 24, 2015 has been adjourned for sentencing after the session held this Tuesday, which concluded with a plea of more than 26 minutes by the accused. The parties have reaffirmed their initial requests. In the case of the Public Prosecutor's Office, it requests that the accused be interned in a psychiatric center for 15 years to receive appropriate treatment, for each of the two crimes she is accused of. The Prosecutor considers that she is not criminally responsible because she suffered a "mental alteration". For its part, the defense asks that she remain "in family custody" and be treated on an outpatient basis.
In the trial, after the statements of all the witnesses and experts were completed, the accused made use of her right to the last word. "Even if I get 15 years [in relation to the prosecutor's request] I am going to speak," she began by stating. In her plea, the defendant stressed the "great love she feels for her children", indicating that "she would never harm them". The woman insisted, as she did on the first day of the trial during her statement, that the delirium that concluded with the aggression against her children "began to take shape" not days before, but two months before. In her speech, she asked where are the psychiatrists of the Canary Islands Health Service network that correspond to her and where are her therapeutic possibilities.
The accused has stated that she has felt alone even in the trial and has had harsh words for her own lawyer, going so far as to say that her lawyer "coerced" her to "say yes to everything" and reach an agreement of conformity, accepting what the Prosecutor's Office is asking for her. In this sense, she has pointed out that he has been more "at the service of her husband", who is the one who "pays him".
"He abandoned me at the peak of my madness"
She has dedicated most of her final plea to her husband, stating that on the night of the events he left her alone with her children and went for a walk with the dog, despite the fact that she was "sick". When the events occurred, they had just returned from the Hospital, where they had gone because she needed attention due to the psychological state she was in that day. "He abandoned me at the peak of my madness", she said. The woman has assured that in her years of relationship she was dominated by him and, as she did on the first day of the trial, she has insisted that she suffered mistreatment. On this occasion she has pointed out that she filed a complaint but withdrew it in February 2014, when she had to ratify it in court.
After the trial, La Voz has spoken with the husband of the accused, who followed the plea in the courtroom. In conversation with this media, he has denied his wife's accusations, although he has explained that he does not want to say anything against her because she suffers a "terrible illness", of which he claims he had no knowledge until the event occurred. He has expressed his desire as a father that his children "can grow up happily in Lanzarote" and that their mother "can improve".
After the woman's long plea, the president of the Chamber wanted to make it clear that the work of the defense lawyer has been "impeccable" and has pointed out to the accused that she can change lawyers if she is not satisfied with him. He also stressed that the trial has been held with all legal guarantees.
Statements
On the other hand, six civil guards who intervened in the case have testified in the trial. The two who arrived at the first moment, warned around half past one in the morning, have stated that they found several people outside the house and the mother of the defendant who explained that her daughter was inside and had a knife. The two agents agreed in pointing out that once inside they saw a trail of blood and found the woman in bed wounded and with the image "of a saint or a metal virgin" pressed against her chest. "She was covered in blood," one of them recalled, pointing out that they asked for a towel to cover the wound that the woman had inflicted on herself in order to help her. "Even her guts were coming out," he said, adding that everything was in disarray.
The agent got to see the knife between the door and the bed. However, it was not until the next day when his colleagues, as they later recounted, found it. It was when the ocular inspection was carried out, to have natural light and that the scene did not suffer any alteration. Then they found the knife under the child's bed, which was also in the main bedroom, behind "medical material" that remained there.
The civil guard who instructed the proceedings, who has testified by videoconference after various problems to establish the connection, has indicated that he took a statement the following day from the mother of the accused, who explained that her daughter had been under strong pressure in previous days due to the possibility that they would move to live outside of Spain. The agent has also indicated that the grandmother stated in her statement that the accused had said on the night of the event, in reference to the child, that "he must be killed, he is the devil." This statement was also recognized by other agents as having been heard from the grandmother herself on the night of the events.
That the mother-child relationship be maintained
The husband of the accused has also testified as a witness. In his statement he has explained that the children call their mother every day and that he agrees with the reports that recommend that the mother-child relationship be maintained. Regarding the decision to renounce any type of compensation for his children, he has argued that he did not ask for anything because he was "advised" by the defense "and because he does not want to do anything against his wife.
He recalled that on the night of the events his wife and he arrived home from the Hospital between 00.30 and 01.00 hours. Once they arrived, his mother-in-law went up to her house and the couple had a brief chat. "My wife told me that she felt good and we told each other that we loved each other," the husband pointed out, adding that after that chat he took the dog out and when he returned he found his mother-in-law in the street "shouting for help" with the child in her arms bleeding.
"Supposedly I let go of the dog, I asked about the girl, but I don't remember," he continued. After he took his son, according to what he said, his wife came to the door "shouting the child must die."
