"It all started with a matter of jealousy." Around 4:30 a.m. on November 28, 2004, the Estrella bar in Puerto Naos in Arrecife was the scene of a fight between one of the accused's friends and the local waiter, Arturo P. "It was actually nonsense," Arturo explained in court, "and that's how I explained it to the Police when it was all over." Apparently, the waiter's girlfriend was talking to a friend of the accused, he noticed and allegedly assaulted the boy. The result: a fight between the two. According to the assaulted man's testimony, after being separated and moving away from the place, he found two National Police officers to whom he related what happened. Later, the accused and another companion, who had been having drinks with him at the bar and who had gone to an ATM, returned with their vehicle to Puerto Naos with the intention, according to their statements during the trial, "to identify the jealous aggressor before the Police".
Upon arriving back in the area, the accused, who was driving the vehicle allegedly involved in the hit-and-run, claims that he braked and his companion got out of the car. According to the testimonies of those present, he punched the waiter and got into a fight again. After being separated, he returned to the vehicle with the intention of escaping since, according to his testimony in court, "when I turned around we saw that there were people with stones and sticks. We got scared and wanted to get out of there," he argued.
The alleged hit-and-run occurred when the vehicle, according to the statement of the accused and his two companions, was trying to leave the port, crossing again the place where the victim was with other bar customers. He, according to his own testimony, was carrying "a block to intimidate them and make them stop the vehicle" and approached the car that was coming towards him. "Maybe I could have dodged the car but I didn't think about it," the young man allegedly run over told the judge.
The accused has stated that he had "no intention of running over or killing the victim", but has assured that he was driving drunk and was scared to the point of fearing for his life because of the reaction of the waiter and his companions after the altercation. This is how he explained in court that when approaching the young man, he raised a large stone and "we protected our heads for fear of being hit and we did not realize that we had run him over, we were only thinking about escaping." Later they went to the Civil Guard facilities in Costa Teguise where they explained what happened. There, they were transferred by members of the Local Police of Arrecife to the dependencies of the body.
Seen for sentencing
After more than two hours of trial in the Provincial Court of Las Palmas in Arrecife, and after the declaration of a total of eight witnesses between the two agents of the Local Police of Arrecife who arrested the accused, his companions and the other involved, including the run over, the judge has left the case seen for sentencing.
The defense lawyer has requested the free acquittal of the accused arguing that "at no time did his client intend to kill" because in his opinion, "there was no motive for it since he had not participated in any of the two previous fights", adding that the accused has already compensated the victim and has visited him during his stay in the Hospital, "worrying about his state of health." He considers that there was no treachery in the judged facts and considers that the fact was accidental and that the responsible was the victim who "did not dodge the vehicle and was heading towards it with faith of revenge".
The Prosecutor's Office, for its part, has raised to six years the prison sentence it is asking for against Rafael J. A. H. for a crime of attempted homicide, and considers that the accused "accelerated abruptly" the vehicle in the direction of the victim "with the intention of killing him".
