The Provincial Court of Las Palmas has imposed a three-year prison sentence on Cesáreo García Fernández, who in February 2015 stabbed a woman in her home in Titerroy, taking her life. It was a popular jury that was in charge of issuing the verdict and now the Court has issued the sentence, adjusting to the facts that the jury considered proven to impose the penalty.
According to the verdict, the accused is guilty of a crime of "aggravated injuries in ideal competition with a crime of homicide due to gross negligence, with the concurrence of the incomplete exculpatory circumstance of legitimate defense." It was the woman who first attacked Cesáreo García with the same knife. However, the Prosecutor's Office considered that this did not justify the subsequent aggression, since she was unarmed when the accused stabbed her in the chest. For that reason, it was asking for 11 years in prison for the crime of homicide.
In the sentence made public this Wednesday, the Court also condemns the accused to compensate the victim's children with the amount of 90,000 euros, "as compensation for moral damages." In addition, he must pay the costs of the trial, including those of the private prosecution. After his arrest, Cesáreo García was placed in provisional detention pending trial, so that time will now be deducted from the sentence when the sentence is executed.
A discussion after trying to have relations
The events occurred in February 2015, when Cesáreo traveled from Tenerife to Lanzarote to visit Araceli A.F., with whom he had been in a relationship for some time. She herself went to pick him up at the airport and, after having a drink in a nearby bar, they both went to her home. There, according to the facts that the sentence considers proven, "the accused again ingested alcoholic beverages and they tried to have sexual relations."
Next, there was a discussion between them and the woman assaulted Cesáreo in the back, with a kitchen knife, when he was smoking in the living room window looking out onto the street. Then, according to the sentence, "the accused began a struggle with Araceli", during which she bit him, causing a wound on his elbow.
In the course of said struggle, according to the verdict of the popular jury, Cesáreo "stabbed the deceased with the knife, only once, without intending to cause her death, only to defend himself and get her off him in order to flee, since the situation caused him a state of fear and terror because the deceased had tried to kill him." However, it also adds that it was "a disproportionate and excessive reaction, since the accused could have prevented Araceli from attacking him again, causing a less serious harm." Therefore, it applies the exemption of legitimate defense only partially.
"Without showing any sign of remorse"
After the attack, the victim tried to leave the house and ask for help, but ended up dying on the landing of the house. For his part, Cesáreo collected his belongings and left the house. According to the sentence, he did so "without showing any sign of remorse, or notifying the competent authorities." He even returned to the "scene of the events", since he had forgotten his cane, avoiding Araceli's lifeless body, which was lying at the door of the house.
Afterwards, he went to a nearby bar to have a gin and tonic, before heading to the airport to return to Tenerife. It was at the Lanzarote aerodrome where he was finally arrested by agents of the National Police, when he was about to enter the airport terminal.
