Cristian Echayz, lawyer for the family of Daniela Olate, appeared before the Court of Letters and Guarantee of Florida this Wednesday to request, like the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Presidential Delegation of Biobío, the preventive detention of José Morales, accused as the perpetrator of non-intimate femicide in the case of the young woman.
Daniela Olate, 23 years old, was reported missing on Tuesday, July 16. The next day, her body was found with injuries attributable to third parties in an area with grasslands in the commune of Florida. According to the Police Investigations (PDI), before she disappeared, she sent a message to her sister, informing her that she was on her way back home after delivering some medication to her grandmother in the El Álamo area. It was a route she took regularly, but this time, Olate told her sister that she had accepted a ride from someone who was traveling to Concepción.
Morales, a self-confessed author of the crime, was arrested this Sunday by Carabineros personnel. The subject stabbed her multiple times and threw her into a ravine.
Echayz emphasized that during the arraignment hearing, the statement in which José Morales “expressly and in detail recognized” how he killed the young woman was detailed.
“This account demonstrates and manifests not only his authorship but also the extreme malice of the accused and the absolute contempt of this person for human life and for others. Additionally, there is evidence, beyond the required standard, to reasonably presume that the accused José Morales has participated in the crime under investigation,” he stated.
Regarding the video recordings collected by the investigation teams, the lawyer stated that one can see the movement of the accused in the vehicle he was driving and it is possible to see the victim inside the vehicle “both in the initial stage, when the journey begins, and in the later stages when Daniela is already injured.”
“The freedom of the accused clearly constitutes a danger to society. While it is true that nothing that can be obtained in this criminal process will be able to recover Daniela’s life, we can assure through this case that society will not be exposed to the danger of what it means for this subject to be free on the streets”, he stated.
The lawyer justified the request for preventive detention, indicating that “the sentence assigned to this crime, as has already been mentioned, starts from 15 years and one day upwards, up to the maximum sanction provided by the legal system.”
“There exists not even a possibility, nor the remotest chance, that the accused could serve any sanction or penalty in a medium other than being deprived of liberty”, he emphasized.