That was a rain of blows. Five witnesses to the group beating that ended the life of Samuel Luiz in La Coruña in the early hours of July 3, 2021 have agreed to describe the crime scene as “a hubbub” with “a lot of noise” and a succession of “legs and blows.” “There were punches everywhere,” described one of the young people who testified in this Tuesday’s session of the trial being held this month by the Provincial Court of La Coruña.
TO difference from the witnesses who appeared on Mondaywho were friends of some of the five investigated for the murder, those who appeared this Tuesday did not know them. That’s perhaps why they didn’t get so close to the “turmoil” that formed that morning on the seafront of La Coruña and they couldn’t see too many details or identify the aggressors.
Only one of the five appearing in this Monday’s session “knew” the accused by sight. “I didn’t know them by name, but by their faces, yes,” The first of the witnesses detailed questions from the magistrate. The other four were simply young people who were in the area, some of them located quite a few meters from where the fatal attack occurred.
Perhaps for that reason, because he got closer, the witness of the session who was able to provide the most details to the jury was that young man who “knew” the accused by sight, although, as the prosecutor of the case, Olga Serrano, between what she declared at the time before the Police and in the investigating court and what she said this Tuesday in the courtroom there is an abyss.
«You said then that you did not go to the Police because I was afraid of reprisals, that he saw Samuel fall and that several people attacked him. “Why did he say that now and now he says he didn’t see anything?” the prosecutor asked. “I still did not have the NIE, and therefore I thought that the further away from the police, the better,” answered the witness. “That day my memory was fresher, I didn’t lie,” he defended at another point during the interrogation.
But little by little, although without identifying any of the aggressors, the young man has refined his memory as the interrogation progressed: “What I saw was a crowd of people.” “Was that crowd kicking Samuel,” the prosecutor wanted to know. “Yes, I think so,” the young man agreed. To finish admitting that “There were punches everywhere.”
Crystal noise
Several witnesses, at least three of the five who appeared this Tuesday, also heard During the scuffle they heard “clattering glass”, what they imagined of a bottle breaking. But without more details. Last week, another witness saw one of the young men attack Samuel with a bottle, but was also unable to identify who it was.
The forensic investigation determined at the time that there was DNA from Alejandro Freire, alias ‘Llumba’, one of the five prosecuted for the crime, in some broken glass found at the scene. But, at least for now, the trial has not been able to identify that it was a bottle that had been used in the fatal attack on Samuel Luiz.
The events occurred on the night of July 2 to 3, 2021 at the doors of the Andén pub, on the promenade near Riazor in A Coruña. Diego Montaña thought that Samuel was recording him with the phone, when in reality he was making a video call with a friend who had not gone out that night.
After death threats that included homophobic insults, he pounced on the victim, an attack that was joined – according to the accusations – by Llumba, Kaio Amaral, Alejandro Míguez and two other young people who at the time were minors. Catherine Silva, Diego Montaña’s then-girlfriend, is accused of allegedly trying to prevent a friend of Samuel’s from helping him. These five young people who were of legal age – the two minors have already been tried and convicted for the murder – They face sentences of between 22 and 27 years in prison.
The last of the witnesses who appeared this Tuesday was able to see a group disperse after the attack: “It was quite fast, the people who hit him left.” And he explained to the jury that he then tried to help the victim, who had been left “unconscious on the ground.” «So that they wouldn’t run over him, I grabbed him [en la carretera] and I took him to the sidewalk,” he detailed. The two young Senegalese men who tried to save Samuel from the lynching were also there then.
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