a young man was accused of attempting to kill a man in Villena after he allegedly drove away, grabbed a baseball bat, and struck the victim. He denied any intention to kill himself, stating that his actions were a desperate attempt to intimidate after repeated threats and speeding incidents. He claimed the vehicle rolled away from him and then struck the victim in a moment of uncontrolled fear during the incident that unfolded in Alicante Court on a Tuesday.
The events took place late in the morning of February 7, 2022, in the San Francisco de Asís neighborhood of Villena. The victim, who was reportedly a distant relative of the defendant, denied issuing any threats against the accused.
During the third day of the hearing, which was scheduled to conclude on the following Wednesday, the prosecutor and the special prosecutor requested separate prison terms of 11 and 12 years for attempted murder. In addition to the prison terms, they asked the court to order the defendant to pay 14,000 euros in damages in the prosecution case and 15,000 euros in damages cited by the special prosecutor. Before the trial proceeded, defense lawyers Moisés Candela Sabater and Mari Paz Alarcón spoke on behalf of the defendant and indicated their client would be willing to cover any legitimate account of compensation that might be assessed in court.
wilfulness
According to the prosecutor, the man acted with sudden intent and a clear aim to kill the victim, who had been struck as he stood on the pavement. While the victim lay unconscious on the ground, the accused allegedly struck him repeatedly with a large stick. The prosecution asserted that the injuries were serious and required a prolonged recovery period, estimated at about 120 days to heal fully.
In the defendant’s account presented at the hearing, the victim allegedly came to his wife seeking money to buy drugs and warned him that he did not threaten him. Hours later, the defendant said that while driving, he observed the victim making threatening gestures from the sidewalk. The defendant claimed he had a bicycle with him, and while the intimidation continued, he described accelerating his vehicle as a scare tactic. He asserted that his car left the road and happened to strike the victim, but his aim was merely to crash the bicycle, not to cause harm to the person.
The defendant emphasized that harming the victim was not his objective and that there was no motivation to inflict harm. He contended that if the victim was attacked, there had been no prior request for money to buy drugs and no prior threats directed at him. He described that he felt the impact of the vehicle when he turned away and subsequently fell to the ground. He stated that the other person who was with him at the time also witnessed the moment when the car struck, and the defendant added that he then grabbed a baseball bat and acted in a panicked attempt to stop the assault while the victim was on the ground.
The victim’s relatives and witnesses testified that there had been no prior trouble with the defendant. One cousin of the victim said the attack appeared deliberate and that several people emerged from their homes to assist the victim, while the assailant fled the scene after striking him two or three times with the club. After the accident, the car reportedly collided with a tree, a detail observed by the witness as having prevented the vehicle from crushing the victim.