Christmas Day killer stands trial

A 23-year-old man stands trial in the Provincial Court of Alicante from today, Monday, accused of killing his former partner, who was 25 at the time of the incident and had broken off the relationship, by shooting her in the head on Christmas Day in Elche in 2021.

This accused identified as Francisco N., fled after killing his ex-partner, a Paraguayan national and mother of a 10-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl in the Los Palmerales neighbourhood of Elche, and his whereabouts were unknown until December 30 of that year, when he barricaded himself with three women and a man as hostages in a brothel in the urban area of ​​Elche that was run by a former mother-in-law from a previous relationship.

From there he shot several National Police officers with a Kalashnikov assault rifle before being captured, in a shootout that ended without injuries.

The trial is expected to last until Thursday, when the court will determine whether the accusation of the murder of Yolanda, with whom he had a romantic relationship between November and December 2021, is true in a case instructed by the crimes of murder and illicit possession of weapons, with the aggravating factor of gender discrimination.

According to the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV), the prosecution considers that the victim had decided to leave the relationship due to the control that the man exercised over her friendships and relationships.

The jury will have to decide if, on Christmas Eve, the two began an argument via WhatsApp during which he decided he was going to end the woman’s life. To do this, the accused would have convinced the victim to come to his house that morning and when she arrived, the accused would have taken advantage of the woman’s distraction to shoot her in the head with a short gun, which caused her death.

Then, the defendant fled for days and, after confessing the facts to his lawyer, who notified the Police, he was located and arrested on December 30, 2021, after barricading himself in the brothel with a Kalashnikov, with which he shot the agents.

Last February the accused accepted, in accordance with the prosecution, 10 and a half years in prison for the aforementioned episode of barricading himself in the brothel.

Then, the accused acknowledged the facts and admitted four years in prison for each of the two attempted murders of two police officers, two more years for possession of a prohibited weapon (the classification of a weapon of war was modified) and six more months for burglary of establishment open to the public.

He now faces the second trial, that of the sexist murder of his former partner.

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