A Uruguayan Court of Appeals revoked the acquittal and sentenced the “car attendant” who was detained for covering up the crime of Lola Chomnalez, the Argentine teenager murdered in December 2014 on the beach of Barra de Valizas, to eight years in prison, sources reported today. judicial.
Appeal of acquittal and conviction
The decision of the Court of Appeals of the 4th. The turn fell on Ángel Eduardo Moreira Martínez, alias “El Cachila”, who on June 20 had been acquitted for lack of evidence and released immediately following being detained for three and a half years.
Although “El Cachila” returned to prison months later for violating an approach restriction requested by an ex-partner, judges Luis Vicinguerra, Ángel Shaban and Gabriela Cobelli unanimously resolved to revoke the acquittal issued by Judge Juan Letrado Giménez Vera, of the 1st. Rocha’s turn, and sentence him to eight years in prison “as the perpetrator responsible for a crime of concealment.”
This was confirmed today to Télam by one of the Chomnalez family lawyers, Jorge Barrera.
The acquittal of the “car attendant” Moreyra had been appealed on June 28 by the Rocha prosecutor, Jéssica Pereyra, who, when presenting the appeal, reiterated her request for a sentence of ten years in prison.
For the crime of the adolescent, Leonardo David Sena (39) continues to be detained, who, according to the acquittal of Judge Giménez Vera, in his statement said that he did not know “Cachila”.
“Through genetic material we were able to locate a person, who is the one who deposited their genetic material, worth the redundancy, at the scene of the event, that is, in the towel that was inside the backpack that Lola was carrying inside. the day he died and on his Argentine national identification document,” the magistrate explained to the press days following Sena’s capture, which occurred at the end of last May.
However, Giménez clarified that he cannot “say that the case is closed” since the defendant did not admit “having killed Lola Chomnalez.”
“It is scientifically located at the crime scene. He acknowledges having made contact with Lola’s belongings and that he steals money from the backpack, he acknowledges what is impossible not to recognize because scientific evidence places him in that place, but he denies responsibility for the crime,” said Juan Willman, meanwhile, one of the lawyers for the victim’s parents.
Meanwhile, eight years following the crime, the lawyer told Télam: “It is the first anniversary in which we felt the peace of mind that the person who had left his DNA in Lola’s belongings was finally found.”
Meanwhile, judicial sources assured this agency that the defendant, who has a criminal record for two other events, was arrested in Chuy, on the border between Uruguay and Brazil, and that different witnesses indicated that he was frequently seen in the Castillos and Rock.
Lola’s trip and crime
Lola (14) traveled to Barra de Valizas on Saturday December 27, 2014 and stayed at the house of her godmother, Claudia Fernández, who was with her husband, Hernán Tuzinkevcih, and his son.
The following day, the teenager disappeared when she went for a walk on the beach and two days later she was found murdered regarding four kilometers from the house, in an area of dunes.
Through the autopsy it was determined that Lola died of suffocation and that she had several cuts made with a knife in different parts of her body.
For the prosecution, the teenager tried to run away from her murderers, was hit, wounded with a knife and hit on the head to finally die of suffocation when, due to her probable calls for help, they pressed her face once morest the sand.
“El Cachila” was arrested at the beginning of the investigation, but was released since the comparison of his DNA with the genetic material found in the victim’s objects was negative, but in 2019 the Uruguayan Justice charged him once more and arrested him as accessory following the conclusion that “he was present before, during and following the murder” of the adolescent.
Since then, the experts from the Scientific Police continued with the DNA comparisons with each of the new ones admitted to the prison system for other reasons and thus reached the relative of the now accused of being the material author of the crime.
