Trial Begins for 2018 Murder of Moroccan Man in Almeria, Spain

The main defendant killed the Moroccan with a bullet in the back in a house in Paterna del Río (Almeria) in October 2018. He and his two co-defendants had already been tried and sentenced to 18 months in prison with probation in April 2019, after the youngest of them admitted to having helped hide the body of the Moroccan, discovered a few days later by the Civil Guard, about four kilometers from the residence.

The trial will take place over six hearings during which the jury members will hear the testimony of the main defendant, as well as that of 22 witnesses and about ten experts. According to the indictment presented by the public prosecutor’s office, the victim went on October 13, 2018 with four other people to the home of the defendants in Paterna del Río (Almeria), including two aged 23 and one of 18. One of them shot the Moroccan with a shotgun, who fell to the ground.

It is up to the court to determine whether one of the defendants tried to prevent the victim from fleeing the property, which allowed the other to shoot him "unexpectedly" in the back, causing his immediate death. The body of the Moroccan was then tied up "with cables" and wrapped "in plastic" to "facilitate its transport" in a vehicle. The body was abandoned on a slope, more than four kilometers from the house.

According to the defense, the victim would have pointed a weapon at the defendant, asking him "where is the drug", which prompted the other defendant to use the shotgun in an act of "self-defense" and under the presumed influence of alcohol and drugs consumed the day before. The defense will request his acquittal. Investigators also suspect the defendants of marijuana trafficking, even though no drugs were found in the house, which had been "cleaned with bleach and ammonia".