"Don Juan Francisco Rosa Marrero is sentenced to the penalty of special disqualification from the exercise of real estate promotion and construction activity for three months, from 04/05/2018 to 07/03/2018." That is the announcement that the Official State Gazette has published to report on the execution of the sentence handed down on April 4, which condemned the businessman for a crime of reckless homicide, for the death of a worker during the works of the Princesa Yaiza hotel in the year 2000.
The same text was published last Thursday up to 13 times in the BOE, one for each company to which Rosa appears linked. Thus, the companies under which that announcement appeared are Gran Hotel La Palma SL, Bodegas Stratvs SL, Construcciones y Urbanizaciones Insulares SL, Hotel Princesa Yaiza SA, Hotel Los Fariones SA, Promociones Costa de Tías SA, Triana Tres Arrecife SL, Antonio Curbelo e Hijos SL, Playa Blanca Gestion SL, BTL Lanzarote SL, Playa Blanca 5 SL, Rentalanz SL and Corporación Lanzaroteña de Medios SL, owner of Lancelot Televisión.
In addition to three months of disqualification, Juan Francisco Rosa's sentence also included three months in prison, although in this case he will not serve them as it is a sentence of less than two years. Initially, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested three years in prison for Rosa and for the other two people who sat next to him in the dock, but they all accepted an agreement of conformity with the Prosecutor's Office to avoid the trial and to reduce the sentences. This agreement also included the payment of 375,000 euros to the family of the deceased, who had been waiting for Justice for 18 years, since the event occurred in July 2000.
The insurance companies paid most of the compensation
In the judgment, dictated on the same day of the hearing after the agreement of conformity, it is stated that most of that compensation would be borne by two insurance companies, which were also denounced and appeared in the case as civilly liable. Specifically, Allianz and Mapfre had to deliver just over 300,000 euros, while Rosa agreed to pay another 70,000 euros to the family, which was present as a private prosecution, to close that agreement of conformity and reduce the prison sentence.
As for the other two people convicted, Juan Pablo Pazos Gil and Juan Gaspar Rodríguez Peña, they were responsible for the two companies subcontracted by Rosa to carry out these works. In their case, they also accepted three months in prison and three months of disqualification, but did not respond to the compensation to the family.
"The defendants Juan Francisco Rosa Marrero, Juan Pablo Pazos Gil and Juan Gaspar Rodríguez were aware of the conditions of the execution of the work, without having adopted the necessary security and protection measures legally provided to carry it out without risk to the workers who operated in it," the judgment states in the proven facts, which were recognized by Rosa and the other two defendants.
A crane operator without training and a machine with "deficiencies"
The accident took place on July 29, 2000, when the deceased worker was entrusted with the task of "raising with concrete blocks a wall that had been destroyed by the effect of the wind" the night before. Meanwhile, another employee was working in the same area with a crane, despite the fact that he "lacked the qualification to handle it." And that, according to the judgment, "was known by his employers."
In addition, the three confessed that they also knew that the crane had "structural, mechanical and maintenance deficiencies." This, together with an excess of load in the tub, caused the crane's boom to break and fall on the victim, who also "did not carry any protection measure" and who died that same day, after suffering a "traumatic shock, with polytrauma, polyfractures and destruction of vital centers."
The absence of security measures, the lack of training of the crane operator and the state of that machine not only caused the death of a worker but also put "at risk" the lives of others, as stated in the judgment and recognized by the defendants. For all these reasons, they accepted a conviction for a crime against the rights of workers, in conjunction with another of reckless homicide, although the confession and the time elapsed since the cause began, almost 18 years ago, led to significantly reduce the prison sentences to the point that they should not serve them. The only thing they have had to face, in addition to the payment of compensation to the family in the case of Rosa, is that disqualification for real estate promotion and construction that is already being executed and that will finish complying next July.