A popular Alicante court judge reported on Monday that a 24-year-old man faced prosecution for allegedly shooting his partner to death at her home on Christmas Day in 2021. The defendant, Francisco NM, who lives in Elche, was linked by the prosecution and three other charges to the fatal shot that killed 25-year-old Yolanda, a Paraguayan national. In the opening session of the trial, the defendant did not enter a guilty plea. He answered no questions during the hearing, according to his defense attorney Moisés Candela Sabater. The defense suggested the crime might be connected to the theft of three cocaine packages found at his residence. The defendant stated that he called 112 at dawn after distributing drugs in Los Palmerales but hung up while considering what to tell the authorities.
In the initial stage, the defense requested a sentence of 25 years for deliberate murder and a further 2 years for illegal weapon possession. The defense maintained that the defendant did not shoot Yolanda and that there was no romantic relationship between them. They claimed the motive could have been the theft of cocaína located at Yolanda’s home. The prosecutor also sought 200,000 euros in compensation for Yolanda’s relatives.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office, along with Yolanda’s family and other associations, argued that Yolanda was killed because she decided to end the relationship she had been in since November 2021. The case is framed as a homicide connected to controlling behavior by the defendant during the couple’s short relationship. The accusations described a pattern in which the defendant restricted Yolanda from communicating with others and grew suspicious of any contact she might have with people from her home country.
Control over the victim
During the relationship, the defendant is alleged to have exercised total control over Yolanda, limiting her contact with others and fueling suspicion that anyone might speak with her. The charges state that the couple argued on Christmas Eve, leading to the decision to end Yolanda’s life. It is claimed that the defendant sought help from a neighbor to obtain gasoline to destroy evidence and to implicate others in the planned crime. Around 8:20 p.m., the couple allegedly stopped at a gas station on the old Santa Pola highway. On their return, they asked a neighbor and cousin for several empty water bottles to fill with the fuel they had purchased.
The defendant is said to have invited Yolanda to go to her Taronger Street home and waited there on Christmas Eve with the intent to kill. Yolanda arrived around 1:30 a.m. on December 25, sat on the bed in the master bedroom, and removed her shoes. Seizing the moment when Yolanda’s attention was diverted, the defendant allegedly drew a 9 mm Lama pistol and fired a single shot to her head, causing instantaneous death according to the charges.
After the incident, the defendant purportedly contacted several Los Palmerales residents offering money to help dispose of the body, but none accepted. He then went to a street with many neighbors and stated, I am leaving, I killed the girl. He later contacted his lawyer on Christmas Day and, after meeting the lawyer, informed him that a woman’s body had been found. Police were alerted, and the defendant fled to a brothel in Elche, where he allegedly fired at officers with an assault rifle. He later claimed he believed the officers might be spies and thought they could be linked to Yolanda’s death.
In the days before his arrest, he allegedly hid the murder weapon in a woman’s home. The defendant described himself as someone involved in drug trafficking and claimed he would work to raise funds to bring Yolanda’s four-year-old daughter from Paraguay. He asserted that Yolanda had ordered gasoline and that the crime occurred while she went to buy fuel and cocaine.