2023-05-25 17:47:47
The case of Fernando Sosa brings to mind the crime of Nicolás Scorolli in 2011: a policeman from Río Negro introduces the barrel of a shotgun through the window of a car and shoots. Scorolli died and Sosa did not: the only difference. The similarities are of such a caliber that Judge Florencia Caruso, who read the guilty verdict, took an extract from the sentence of the Scorolli case: “It describes exactly what happened in this event with the difference that Fernando Sosa did not lose his life and today he can tell his story and that he might bring this fact to trial without us regretting one more death due to the excessive actions of a police officer”, recounted the magistrate.
In the trial that took place last week, it was found that Corporal Darío San Martín, a short distance away and without saying a word, he fired a shotgun into the young man’s face He was driving a vehicle with a group of friends. They were returning to Cipolletti from a birthday celebration in Fernández Oro.
All witnesses to the event, which occurred on October 10, 2021, agreed that the cash leaned on the hood of the car and following the victim rolled down the driver’s side window, he fired his weapon. The pellet impacted Sosa’s jaw, which had to be urgently transferred to a health center. He was first treated at the Oro hospital and then referred to Cipolletti. Almost two months later they were able to operate on him and he was unable to work for three months.
The prosecutor’s office and the complaint managed to demonstrate in an oral and public trial that San Martín is responsible for the crime of serious injuries qualified for the use of a firearm and for being a member of the police force in the exercise of his duties. The court made up of Florencia Caruso, Julio Sueldo and Marcelo Gómez declared him criminally responsible for the accusation. In a trial of caesura the penalty will be defined.
The accusers: the chief prosecutor Santiago Márquez Gauna and the complainants Iván Chelía and Darío Ottonello will request an effective prison sentence, that is, more than three years. Yesterday Judge Florencia Caruso read the operative part of the verdict for the trial that took place last week.
The judge explained that the evidence was sufficient to determine that San Martín was responsible for firing the shotgun once morest the integrity of the young man. The defense theory, led by Rubén Pérez, was that it was a culpable act and that San Martín missed the shot. Caruso was very critical of the defense theory that among other things he said that the defendant was run over by Sosa. However, no injury might be proven. The testimony of the policemen who accompanied San Martín in the procedure were decisive in the guilty verdict.
The judges and judge of the court did not believe that version. Especially since all eyewitnesses to the event agreed that The corporal got out of the patrol car with a shotgun and without saying a word pointed the barrel of the gun at the victim and fired. In the debate it was aired that prior to the departure of the birthday party there was an incident, a fight between young people and that it was the first intervention of the police force. Then the incident occurred that culminated in the shooting.
“I took the fact for granted and it happened just as the victim reported. It was also found that the perpetrator criminally responsible was Corporal San Martín, this is clear from the statements of his cellmates (…) It was also clear that the shot was fired at close range,” Caruso explained when reading the verdict.
“The shot was irrational, unnecessary, excessive and I say this because there was no reason to use that shotgun. They used their cell phones just to identify the occupants of the vehicle, they said absolutely nothing,” added the judge.
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