Just a few seconds. This is how long the interrogation of those accused of the Atrio robbery took, Constantin Dumitru and Priscila Lara Guevaraexpressly accepting their right not to testify. It was one of the most anticipated moments. Hearing at the Cáceres Court starting this Monday after the initial approach between the parties that ended without agreement two weeks ago.
On this first day, the defendants and twenty witnesses were called, including hotel owners, staff, and National Police agents; It was intended to shed light on the main questions of the case, such as where the bottles were. Staff and agents closed the siege on the defendants, who spoke only to testify their innocence before the Chamber.
The next day — this Wednesday — in his absence, experts extracted DNA samples correspond to Dumitru and Lara Guevaratestimonies this Monday provided proof, such as identification of two defendants by at least two witnesses (a national agent and receptionist) and a recording of the videos and calls that placed them at the crime scene.
Following the dynamics of the previous session, The defendants arrived at the courthouse after 9.15 p.m., guarded by National Police vans.. Moments later, her sunglasses-clad and smiling lawyer, Sylvia Córdoba, did the same. In some brief statements she gave to the media, she reiterated the innocence of her defendants. Rafael Montes, the lawyer of Reale, the insurance company that compensated Atrio with 700,000 euros – the wines on the menu totaled 1.6m euros – did not want to talk.
In the next room, more than twenty media, three of them British. The Guardian correspondent in Madrid, Sam Jones, who traveled to Cáceres to follow up on the trial, assured him that the case was “rare” and that one of the stolen bottles lay in the exclusivity of an 1806 Chateaux d’Yquem. The journalists shared the seat with law students who were interning at the Extremadura Supreme Court of Justice (TSJEx) and also wanted to follow the case.
With absolute punctuality, a session that was predicted to be long and intense, but full of surprises, began. The power of Department head Joaquín González Casso, who intervened to avoid redundancies in interrogations. In fact, at one point in the trial, he asked the prosecution to relinquish four witnesses to speed up the trial, something the parties agreed to.
Thus, in the morning hours, the statements followed one another. They tore off the fingers of two defendants. Both pleaded not guilty and both refused to answer questions from the parties. Dumitru wanted to answer his lawyer, but declared that he had no questions to ask him.
His appearance was so quick that he forced the judge to pause until the witnesses arrived. The first to do this was one of the owners of the Atrio. Jose Polo quickly entered the Palace of Justice and chose not to explain. The hotel’s partner and co-owner Toño Pérez justified his absence by having some Repsol Guide awards in Alicante.
He was an Atrio employee and an agent who knew Dumitru and Lara Guevara as the perpetrators. First, the receptionist on the night of the robbery is the employee who had the most contact with the alleged perpetrator. He said that morning he refused to meet his demands up to three times, but eventually gave up. He talked about a salad he made himself, and then a plate of cut fruit. “I was surprised that they were hungry after the tasting menu”added.
The rest of the workers, including owner Jose Polo, were unable to pinpoint whether the people they saw that night were the two defendants. Yes, he did, and he did it with the same force as one of the cops, the employee. He was one of the agents who greeted the detainees upon their arrival in Madrid. “Of course they are,” the prosecutor confirmed at Carmen Barquilla’s request.
Another key to this first session is in the phone recordings and security cameras. Police officers confirmed that the seized terminals corresponded to the terminals used by Dumitru and Priscila on the night of the events. One of the agents claimed that Lara Guevara had called her phone in a videotape where the alleged perpetrator was carrying the bottles.
All three conversations were removed from the defendant’s phone: the first about the death of the defendant’s daughter, and the others because they talked about wines and the possibility of selling them in the United States, or replacing them with a car “because” Bottles were difficult to place.”
These interviews show that in November 2021 the defendants are already living in the Netherlands, where they will be looking for housing. The rent of a high-cost flat in The Hague appears even in an SMS, despite their “inability to pay”. He had 14,000 Euros in an ING account. This phone was disabled on a flight from Barajas and reactivated in El Prat. After seeing the passenger list, Dumitru’s name appears and conversations between him and his daughter and Priscila and himself are also reflected. After the defendants are extradited, they release their fingerprints and confirm that the defendant’s fingerprint matches that of a man arrested in Portugal in 2008 under false identity, and that it is Dumitru.
Concha’s Mercedes and 107’s towels
During the hearing, the witnesses completed their account of the night of the robbery. The alleged thieves stayed in room 107. entrance, they ate dinner and went to their room until 2.30 in the morning and asked for something to eat. Taking advantage of the absence of anyone at the reception at the time, the robbery took place.
According to the police, They used a red Mercedes to travel from Madrid to Cáceres He resides in Ramón Gómez de la Serna street. It seems that the owner of the vehicle was going to prison and the vehicle was returned to his mother. To do this, Dumitru made a phone call with his daughter, who would be responsible for handing over the keys of the Mercedes to the owner’s mother.
It was the cleaner who was the last to announce this day. He did so at the request of the defendants’ defense. It was he who entered the room and realized that the towels had been stolen. “There was a bathrobe, unmade bed and a few bottles of water in the tub,” she said. He lifted the sheets, poured a chemical in the toilet, and went to another room in a hurry because it would be full.
It was then that the owners realized that the bottles were missing. The police arrived hours later and took two fingerprints from under a TV cabinet there. DNA was also collected. These tests are the ones that will be presented this Wednesday, the day after the hearing.
The prosecutor’s office is in prison for four and a half years and is asking the insurer to pay the 700,000 euros they paid to the owners for the stolen wine. The defense wants their acquittal.