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Cuban citizen Arletys Castillo was sentenced by a court in Spain to 20 years and one day in prison for the murder of her partner, Gerard Guerra, in November 2023, in Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona, according to reports from the judiciary and local media.
The Barcelona Court ruled that the woman committed the crime of murder with premeditation and cruelty, with the aggravating circumstance of kinship and the mitigating factor of confession after she ultimately admitted to the facts before the court, according to the sentence released by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia.
A statement from the Judicial Power indicated that the verdict was the result of a plea agreement reached among all parties - the Prosecutor's Office, the private prosecution, and the defense - which prevented the holding of an oral trial. The accused acknowledged her responsibility for the actions, accepted the legal classification and the requested sentence, and waived her right to appeal the judgment.
Macabre crime
The events took place around two in the afternoon on November 16, 2023, inside the home shared by Guerra, 33, and Castillo, 28, located on Bogatell Street in Sant Adrià de Besòs. The couple had been in a romantic relationship for almost two years. She already had a four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
The court ruling concluded that the crime was "a planned and extremely violent attack."
On that fateful day, the accused made her boyfriend believe that they would engage in an intimate game, and thus, she managed to persuade him to sit in a chair and let her tie his hands behind his back, leaving him completely immobilized.
Taking advantage of the fact that she could not "mount any effective defense against the attack", the woman delivered 118 stab wounds to various parts of the body, causing death as a result of hypovolemic shock, following "extreme and unnecessary suffering", as confirmed by the experts.
Castillo inflicted all the wounds on Guerra while he was still alive, which proves the malice. The court ruling detailed that out of the total injuries, 51 were located on the face and neck, 53 on the back, chest, and limbs, and 14 on the abdomen.
The accused "aggravated" the suffering of the victim "in a completely gratuitous and unnecessary manner to cause his death," the ruling emphasized. She also acted with premeditation by devising a plan to prevent him from defending himself.
A trail of lies and a motive yet to be uncovered
After committing the crime, Castillo tried to mislead the police investigation with false versions of the events, which the authorities eventually dismissed, reported the digital site El Caso.
At first, she told the agents of the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) of the Nord metropolitan region, from the Mossos d’Esquadra, that men of Moroccan appearance burst into the house, stabbed her boyfriend, and injured her, causing a severe cut to her femoral artery. This was the initial line of investigation pursued by the police.
Thanks to the investigations and analysis of evidence, the researchers confirmed that her claims aimed to conceal the truth: no one had entered or exited the residence, she had bound her partner and had inflicted the wound upon herself.
Days after the crime, Castillo was arrested. Then, in a new statement, she attempted to portray herself as a victim of gender-based violence. She claimed that she had killed Guerra in self-defense, asserting that the man had been abusive towards her and that he posed a threat to her and her young daughter. Throughout the investigation, it was shown that this version was also false.
During the investigation of the case, Castillo's family attempted to divert attention with false accusations against the victim, claiming that the woman had found images of her daughter on her boyfriend's phone. These allegations were also dismissed by the investigation team.
However, to date, the Mossos d’Esquadra have not been able to clarify the motive for the murder. It is suspected that Castillo may have killed his partner because she was about to leave him.
The verdict
In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed five years of supervised release on Castillo after serving the sentence, along with a complete disqualification during the period of incarceration.
As compensation for civil liability, he must pay 120,000 euros to each parent of the victim and 30,000 euros to each sibling.
A forgiveness that does not ease the family's pain
The family of Gerard Guerra believes that the sentence represents the closing of a painful chapter. During these two years, they have not only had to face the loss of their loved one but also the multiple slanderous claims made against him by the accused, which “seriously tarnished his honor,” noted the digital newspaper El Periódico.
“We accepted her as one more in our family. And she deceived us. The murderer of my son has not stopped lying even after killing him,” emphasized Guerra’s mother.
"It is false that our son was going to harm her or her daughter,” both parents made clear, as they have had to endure Castillo claiming that he killed him because he was a bad person.
Although justice has been served, the sentence does not address the slanders made by Castillo, warned El Periódico. For this reason, the family has decided to speak out: “We need the truth to be known, that our son was a good person.”
After the court ruling was announced, Castillo apologized to Guerra's family for having killed him. It was the first time he did so, the newspaper reported.
Arletys Castillo is now in jail, as she was placed in preventive custody by order of the Badalona investigating court on November 29, 2023.
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