Monday, October 17, Santa Cruz de Tenerife County Court VI. Murder of a taxi driver in a community garage in Granadilla de Abona in July 2019. This is the first time the defendant’s defense attorney has put forward an alleged motive for the violent death. Said party alleges that the young Colombian involved went to the building in question. He said he was selling a gram of cocaine, but was mistaken for a buyer.
However, bothdenied the girl as the victim’s emotional partner the man was beaten to death, Gabino, 64, was a drug or alcohol consumer. The woman he lived with admitted to taking anxiolytics (diazepam) several times in order to sleep.
The incidents took place on July 3, 2019, at around 03:30. Shared garage of the San Miguel building on Los González street, in the center of San Isidro.
The defendant, identified as Jofre André Saldaña, now 21, refused to answer questions from prosecutor Olga Méndez; private prosecution attorney Candelaria Velázquez and defense attorney Ginés Cabrera.
If the Ministry of Public Affairs and the victim’s daughter’s lawyer make a request for the alleged perpetrator 25 years in prison for murder with treason and brutality (as they presume that the victim has no choice of defense and is suffering needlessly), defense attorney seeks 10 years in prison for murder, as a fight between the two men resulted in death and Gabino died seconds after receiving the first blows; that is, “who has not suffered excessively”.
Gabino worked as a taxi driver in the municipality of Adeje. But he was from the neighborhood of El Draguito in Granadilla de Abona. At 3:25 a.m. on July 3, he entered the shared garage of the San Miguel building, where he had moved just two days earlier. Since he was living in Llano del Camello in Las Chafiras (San Miguel de Abona) by that time, he accepted Seat Panda Trans, full of bags for the aforementioned move.
A few seconds later, the young defendant also entered the aforementioned garage. The Colombian, who was 18 at the time, refused to testify, so his possible defense was based on the briefing presented by his lawyer. According to this version, the accused was in San Isidro at the house of a relative, where he used alcohol and drugs until morning. Then he went to the San Miguel building, allegedly with the intention of selling a gram of cocaine to a customer. Based on the above-mentioned lawyer’s approach, Jofre André mistakenly thought that Gabino was the alleged buyer.
The defense argues that a fight broke out between the two men and that the victim died a few seconds after the taxi driver received blows to his throat and brain. He also pointed out that the young man “couldn’t control himself” because of the alcohol and drugs he used.
He implied that the sixty-year-old was supposedly not bleeding and that both recent injuries and burns were recorded when the affected person was already dead. He also stated that the young man had no escape plan.
However, the prosecutor’s office and the victim’s daughter’s lawyer think the opposite. In other words, Gabino had no choice in self-defense and was subjected to countless punches, kicks and kicks that caused him unnecessary suffering before losing his life. It was also alleged that the defendants robbed the victim and tried to burn him with the help of poisonous products in order to erase the evidence.
The prosecutor told jurors that the real answer “will never be given” as to why the fatal beating of the victim occurred. He also warned, firstly, that it was not necessary to prove the justification for such action in the Spanish Justice, and secondly, that what was done was “not justified”.
Confronted with the alleged argument put forward by the defense attorney, her daughter’s lawyer said there was “not a single document” proving that the accused was “under the influence” of alcohol or one or more drugs.
The victim’s partner, María, stated that she had been in a romantic relationship with Gabino for eight years when the events occurred. When the man worked the night shift, his normal arrival time at their shared home was between 5:00 and 5:15 am.
That morning the woman woke up at 5:30 and realized that Gabino had not yet arrived. And he didn’t answer his persistent calls. Also, he hadn’t warned her that she was planning to be late. He took the elevator down to the community garage and found his partner’s body there.
María said the taxi driver was lying “on the ground, almost naked, white, I knew he was dead”. She wanted to call the security forces, but there’s no reception in the garage. And she pointed out that she was the first to call the emergency services shortly after meeting a neighbor.
Gabino’s emotional partner explained that he is a very calm person, never getting into fights or engaging in violent behavior. He stated that he did not know that he had problems with anyone. He also pointed out that he did not use alcohol or drugs, “or sleeping pills”. But when questioned later by his defense attorney, he explained that he had resorted to anxiolytics once or twice to get a rest.
After losing the man she shared her life with, she decides to go back to work “to think no more”, but the sight of seeing Gabino’s lifeless body doesn’t go away. He explained that he did not see a drop of blood near the body, but his face was swollen.
The victim’s daughter was having breakfast when she received the call from the Civil Guard who informed her of what had happened. Not believing what the agents were telling her, she decided to hang up. Experts from the Armed Institute phoned again, and this time it was his former partner who received the information and warning that he had to appear at the crime scene.
The young woman described her father as “normal, hardworking, dedicated to the taxi, worried about my education”. She made sure that she had never seen him in a fight or violent act. Therefore, he cannot find a logical explanation for what happened. In fact, she had to resort to seeking psychological support.
He stated that Gabino was a normal-skinned man, “neither thin nor athletic”. The last call he received from his father was to ask how he was doing in his civil service exams. He passed these tests, but his father never found out. He didn’t know that Gabino was taking anxiolytics to sleep.
He told one of the neighbors that there was a man “fixing cars” in the garage by his wife, but that was very strange because he was “naked”. The witness in question confirmed that there was a man lying on the ground by entering the parking lot. He didn’t come and say hello but got no answer. So he decided to go out and call the emergency room.
He then spoke to another resident in the building, and they both went to the garage where they met the deceased sixty-year-old couple. He stated that the San Miguel housing estate was “a quiet building”.