Voted Best
ISSUE NO. 1786
26 Sept - 2 Oct 2019
Newspaper in Spain 2017 & 2018
COSTA DE ALMERÍA YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
JUSTICE FOR GABRIEL A JURY has found Ana Julia Quesada guilty of murdering eight-year old Gabriel Cruz. At the end of a nine-day trial, and after more than 24 hours of deliberations, last Thursday September 19, the nine-member jury unanimously considered it proven the ex-girlfriend of Gabriel’s father’s had killed the little lad in an intentional and sudden way in Cabo de Gata last year. “We find the accused guilty of the criminal act of voluntarily taking the life, unexpectedly and without the possibility of the minor defending himself or reacting,” it says in the verdict, which was read out in front of Quesada in the Almeria Provincial Court. The jury determined the 45year-old Dominican had suddenly thrown the youngster against the floor or wall of the rural property she and the boy’s father were renovating in Rodalquilar. But they did not find she had increased Gabriel’s suffering on purpose. The private prosecution had
VERDICT: The jury unanimously considered it proven Quesada had intended to kill the eight-year-old. argued, based on a private medical report, that she had left the child dazed on the floor for about an hour before smothering him. The jury did consider Quesada had abused Gabriel’s trust given her close relationship to the family. They also found her guilty of two counts of inflicting psychological harm on Gabriel’s parents. The judge will now decide
whether to sentence Quesada to a maximum permanent reviewable prison sentence; this would
make her the first woman in Spain to serve life with a possibility of parole after a minimum fixed term. Gabriel, known to his friends and family as Little Fish, went missing from close to his Grandmother’s house near Nijar on February 27, 2018. His disappearance sparked an extensive search involving thousands of people, among them Quezada. Two weeks later police charged her with killing Gabriel after they caught her with his lifeless body in the boot of her car. She maintained she had not intended to kill the child. * EWN welcomes the decision after following the tragic case from the outset.
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