What delirious thinking mechanism can lead a gang of kids to metamorphose in seconds into a pack of wolves? How much anger does one have to accumulate in one’s soul to suddenly hate one’s fellow man, arrange his death with the rest of the pack without saying a word and execute it immediately, without mercy and blindly following the group with teeth?
Five friends and acquaintances of the five alleged murderers of Samuel Luizeyewitnesses of what happened in the early morning of July 3, 2021 next to Riazor beach in A Coruña, appeared this Monday before the court that judges them in the Provincial Court of the city.
Their versions of events were contradictoryfull of forgetfulness and appeals to their memory gaps for the time that had passed, and for hesitant moments, although always close to each of the accused with whom they maintained friendships and, therefore, to the respective exculpatory accounts that the defenses intend to build before the jury.
As a whole, however, and in the absence of the rest of the evidence, testimonies and expert opinions that endorse or contradict them, their stories they do not allow us to put together a logical narrativecomplete and truthful of what happened. Nor about who and to what degree and form participated in the lynchingmuch less about how that tide of individual rage resulting in collective violence that ended the life of Samuel.
Alcohol and drugs
The strategy of several of the defense lawyers is to emphasize that their clients acted under the influence of alcohol and drugsperhaps in the hope that the court will assess that this circumstance prevented them from knowing with certainty the seriousness of what they were doing. This would allow them to take advantage of the provision of the Penal Code that exempts them from criminal liability to those who commit crimes while fully intoxicated by alcohol, narcotics and similar substances.
As can be seen from the descriptions made by the witnesses who testified this Monday, together with those of the two accused who did so last Thursday —Alejandro Miguez and Catherine Silvathe only ones who are not in provisional prison—, the gang I would have started drinking in the middle of the afternoon on a soccer field in the city, before moving to the Andén pub, on the Riazor promenade, around nine o’clock.
It was the first night they could go out after confinement, and there they had reserved a private room, with drinks included at a rate of a bottle of whiskey for every two peoplewhich some would have mixed with energy drinks like Red Bull. They would also have consumed cocainewhich would have brought almost all of them to a state of drunkenness and excitement that, in the case of Diego Mountainwould have led to an extremely aggressive attitude. This would have worsened even more after an argument with Catherineat the time his girlfriend, shortly before leaving the premises and crossing paths with Samuel.
It seems certain that several of the accused took alcohol, taurine and cocaine, and in undesirable quantities, but from there the mixture is enough on its own to transform the accused into wolves and to make his rude night of drunkenness and laziness a atrocious coven against another human beingis a long way away from proof.
In fact, the prosecutor in the case insists every day insinuating that the gang already had pack characteristics before Samuel’s hunt. In the four days that the oral hearing has been going on so far, he has shown on half a dozen occasions a photograph of the members of the group in aggressive attitudecarrying a katana, blunt objects and a balaclava. The image was taken a few days before the events.
A video clip for a rap song
The accused deny that the violence was already in the group, and they justify it by saying that it was an innocent staging for the video clip of a rap song with gang aesthetic that one of them wanted to record. This is one of the two young people involved who were minors that morning of July 3, 2021, and who in April 2022 They were sentenced to three and a half years in prison in a detention center after reaching an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office.
In that photo you can sense them proud and unitedand it does not seem unfortunate to reason that between the witnesses who testified this Monday and the alleged murderers of those who claim to be or have been friends before the death of samuelthere are still seams that this one would not have completely frayed.
The first to testify was a childhood friend of Alejandro Miguezwhom he placed on the margins of the aggression to hold responsible Diego Mountainwho would have started it; to Alejandro Freire, Yumbawho would have been the first to support her; already Kaio Amaral Silvawhom I would have seen aggressive and ready to kick Samuel although without clarifying if he had really seen him do it.
The second witness, who called himself a friend of Kaio Amaral and Catherine Silva because, he explained, he only knew the rest by sight, indicated that he had not seen them participate in the beating, and that he had not heard the homophobic insults that other witnesses attributed to them. to Diego and Catherine.
Exculpatory testimony
The third was Kaio Amaral’s ex-girlfriendwho knew all the accused and who confirmed that she and her boy had not been in the pub, that Kaio not only He didn’t touch Samuel but that she tried to help him, that Catherine also tried to stop Diego and not to prevent the victim’s friend who was helping him from doing so. Nor did he hear anyone say the word “faggot”and that he does not remember having seen in the area Alejandro Miguez.
After the non-appearance of the fourth witness of the day, which led the judge to impose a fine of 600 euros and urge him to be summoned again for Thursday, and to open a case against him obstruction of justice proceedings If he refused to go to the Court again, the last two interrogated testified: a boy who was a minor when the events occurred, and another young man, known to the entire gang, who yes he heard the insults and who did affirm that Míguez had told him that he had had an altercation with one of the two Senegalese citizens who tried to protect Samuel. His testimony was perhaps the most structured, although he presented it with difficulties and at times overwhelmed by pressure from several of the defense attorneys.
In that sense, several of them insisted on their strategy of overturning the thesis that it was a a homophobic crime. Thus, they questioned several witnesses about whether they could deduce from the clothing, voice and gestures of Samuel Yeah Was he or was he not heterosexual?. They even let it slip that their clients have gay and transgender friendsand they even asked one of the deponents if he knew that another of the people who are going to testify at the trial is, a question that the judge directing the process declared impertinent.
When one wonders how it is possible that they existed so many wolves on the prowl in the souls of a group of young people who have just begun their lives, perhaps the explanation lies precisely there. In the hate speechwhich take over little by little, normalizing impertinences, apparently innocent but in reality a cover for thoughts that are as delusional as they are dangerous. Like homosexuality can be deduced from the clothing or tone of voice of a murder victim, or that it is relevant to reveal in a trial, with name and surname, the sexual condition of a witness. That is what ends up intoxicating the herds with anger, not the whiskey nor the cocaine nor the Red Bull.
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