A man accepts 63 years in prison for killing three homeless in confinement in Barcelona

A man has acknowledged that he beat to death three homeless people who were sleeping on the street in Barcelona in April 2020, during confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has accepted a sentence of 63 years in prison, of which he will serve a maximum 40.

The jury trial began this Monday at the Barcelona Court with an agreement between the defense and the prosecution whereby the man responded with monosyllables to a brief interrogation by the prosecutor to confess to the three crimes.

The murders were on April 16, 18 and 27, the first near the Auditori, the second on Casp street and the last in Rosselló, and after the third crime the men arrested the defendant, who was 35 years old at the time, in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), where he lived in a caravan.

The three victims were homeless men who slept alone on the street, and in her previous allegation the prosecutor has remarked that because of the confinement “people who were on the street were much more insecure than in a normal situation” because there were hardly any people in the street.

The prosecutor added that because of the confinement the defendant “had it better to kill without defense, but the police also had it better to investigate”, and explained that the low presence of people on the street due to the confinement made it easier to identify the man in security camera recordings.

The prosecutor's initial indictment requested a reviewable permanent prison and did not include the three crimes against moral integrity that the man recognized on Monday, and regarding these crimes the prosecutor explained: “Somehow, while being They are killed, they are humiliated, their dignity is taken away, because for the accused they are worthless”.

On the other hand, the accusation does not include aporophobia or that he committed the crimes for this reason, and in this sense the defense lawyer has explained that in April 2020 “he was not recognized by law, which would clearly be unfair to apply that circumstance”.

“I thought they didn't deserve to live”

In the trial there are also two private accusations that represent relatives of victims and the Fundació Arrels as popular accusation: “As Arrels considers, and that is the reason why we are here, that precisely they died because of living on the street. In other words, the defendant killed them because he thought they did not deserve to live, that they deserved to die because they were poor and vulnerable,” said lawyer Beatriz Fernández in her previous allegation..

The sentence takes into account as mitigation that when committing the crimes he had taken alcohol and drugs and, despite the agreement and the confession, the trial will continue because the law requires it to be done when the sentence accepted by the defendant is more than six years. jail, and will continue on Tuesday morning with witness statements.