In Alicante’s courtroom, a highly watched case continues as a jury weighs the fate of a man charged with killing his partner at dawn on Christmas Day 2021 in Elche. The judge will read the verdict this afternoon to determine guilt or innocence. The trial’s fourth session concluded Thursday morning with the official charges laid out, and both the defense and the prosecution appeared to hold firm on their initial positions. Families and supporters, including Yolanda’s relatives, local residents, and advocates from the Generalitat and the Elche Neighborhood Women’s Association, pressed for accountability for the 25-year-old woman who was shot in the head at home in the Los Palmerales district. They urged a guilty verdict, convinced that Francisco NM was the one who fatally shot Yolanda.
On the other side, the defense advocate Moisés Candela Sabater argued his client’s innocence. He noted that the murder weapon lacked the suspect’s DNA or fingerprints and criticized the police inquiry for not thoroughly exploring alternative scenarios, including the possibility that another person could be responsible, as the defendant claimed in his statement.
The prosecutor emphasized that all the evidence pointed to Francisco as the person who killed Yolanda in the early hours of December 25, 2021, while acknowledging the lack of a direct eyewitness. The account described a ruthless crime, with a single bullet striking Yolanda’s temple, leaving her unable to defend herself.
Smuggler is missing
The firearm used in the crime was found hidden in the home of a known drug trafficker from Elche, who did not attend the hearing because his location could not be determined by police. The Public Ministry highlighted that the suspect’s past behavior suggested involvement, noting that he left to buy gas shortly before the crime and after Yolanda’s death. He allegedly asked neighbors to help dispose of old clothing from his house and burn it. Prosecutors argued that the man’s statements about removing clothes betrayed a link to Yolanda’s body, and that he left the residence after the act, telling several neighbors that he had killed the girl. A witness described this moment during the hearing, though the prosecutor reminded the court that the witness was a friend of the defendant.
Meanwhile, the defense raised questions about an additional claim: that three kilos of cocaine were at the home when others allegedly planned to steal the drugs. The accusations also suggested a history of a romantic relationship between Yolanda and the defendant, arguing that premeditated murder fit within a pattern of gender-based violence. The prosecutor argued that the relationship was imbalanced and marked by jealousy, with Yolanda’s autonomy controlled by the defendant.
Special prosecutor Isabel Quirant underscored that the defendant consistently claimed he was not responsible and appeared unmoved by the proceedings. She noted that the defendant did not offer a direct confession during the two-year investigation and did not display the emotions expected of someone facing such charges. She pointed to the defendant’s behavior at the hearing and his delayed admission as part of a strategy to avoid guilt. The lawyer highlighted that the defendant fled the day of the crime and only surrendered after a police confrontation on December 30.
The prosecutor urged the jury to find the defendant guilty, to seek justice for Yolanda, who left behind two young children, ages nine and four, and to give comfort to the victim’s family.
The defense lawyer, Moises Candela Sabater, maintained that Francisco did not have a romantic link with Yolanda, despite testimonies from family and friends. He challenged the police efforts to locate the victim’s phone records or to extract fingerprints or DNA from the bullet casing recovered at the scene.
Candela Sabater asserted that the murder was not premeditated and pointed out that Yolanda had planned to attend a party with her sister that night but changed plans because of the rain. He argued there is no evidence of any offer of money to dispose of a body and claimed that the gun recovered belonged to the drug trafficker’s house, not to his client. He suggested that the weapon could have been ordered by the trafficker who lived at the home. He also challenged the relevance of a phone conversation between the trafficker and his husband in prison, in which Yolanda allegedly stated that Francisco was not the perpetrator, and he questioned why police did not pursue this lead or examine calls made in the early hours of the crime more closely.