The popular jury has declared Pau Rigo innocent, the 82-year-old retiree accused of killing with his shotgun one of the thieves who attacked his home in Porreres (Mallorca) in February 2018. After more than a day of deliberation, the members The jury has unanimously endorsed the allegations made by the old man during the trial recently held at the Balearic Provincial Court: that he acted in legitimate defense when the robber He pounced on him to attack him.
According to the not guilty verdict, the man had the gun at waist level without pointing it and, terrified by another robbery that he had suffered months before, he grabbed the shotgun in order to make the robbers – both brothers – leave. of the home. The members of the jury consider that Rigo had “global fear” and feared for his life when he saw one of the robbers with a goat’s leg in his hand.
On the contrary, they have found guilty of robbery with violence the three defendants who, together with the deceased, planned and committed the robbery. In addition, they consider Fredy E., the assailant who entered the house with his brother, guilty of a crime of injuries and who assured during the trial that he acted in self-defense by attacking Rigo when he had already fired, an extreme that the jury has ruled out.
Along these lines, he has declared it proven that the robbers agreed, planned the robbery and committed it. According to the verdict, two of the robbers, Marcos R. and José Antonio S., watched the house during the days prior to the assault and were the ones who drove the two brothers by car so that they could access the interior of the house and commit the robbery. . Again unanimously, they consider that both used physical violence during the robbery and that not all of the stolen money, estimated at 15,000 euros, was recovered. Finally, the Jury has ruled against the pardon of the three thieves and the suspension of their sentences.
After reading the verdict, the judge-president of the Jury Court, Rocío Martín, has advanced in voice to the accused that in the coming days a sentence of acquittal will be issued for him. On the other hand, the Prosecutor’s Office has demanded a sentence of three years in prison for two of the robbers and a total sentence of six years in prison for the assailant who entered the home. The rest of the lawyers have requested the minimum sentence for their clients.
Second time on the bench
Both the old man and the robbers have sat in the dock for the second time, in the Balearic Provincial Court, after having already been tried for the same events in September 2023. On that occasion, another jury found Rigo guilty. through a resolution that unleashed the controversy and reopened the debate about legitimate defense and whether or not in this case there was a proportionate reaction on the part of the retiree.
After that, the Court annulled the guilty verdict due to various errors in its approach and the Provincial Court finally exonerated the old man, considering that there was not “sufficient” proof that the accused had “the intention of causing the death” of the assailant. Last May, however, the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) declared the acquittal null and void at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office and ordered a repeat of the trial.
During his statement at the oral hearing, Rigo defended that he fired his shotgun when he saw that, at a given moment, the thief was heading towards him and he thought he was going to kill him. The man reported that, during the episode, the assailants “became more and more nervous and violent”: “They pushed me and asked me where I had the money until at one point I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought, ‘These people are going to kill me.'” “I did it to defend myself. What should I have done? “Let me be killed?” he snapped, addressing the court.
When questioned by the prosecutor, Rigo recalled that, at the moment when he went outside the house, where he lived with his ex-wife, he was approached by two hooded men. [en alusión a los dos hermanos]who grabbed him and “twisted” his arm, covered his mouth and grabbed him by the neck. “They told me to calm down. From what they said, they thought he had 200,000 euros at home. They took me inside the house while they told me to be calm, that they were coming to take the money. The first thing they asked me for was the safe. I left again because I had the key in the car.”
“I never thought about shooting. “It was in self-defense.”
Back inside the chalet, he went down to the basement with one of the two [supuestamente Fredy] while the other assailant stayed with his wife in his room. When we found that there was only 15,000 euros in the safe, “we went back up and they became increasingly nervous and violent. I told them to leave, but they shook me and asked me where the money was until one moment I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to do something: defend myself.” The old man recalled that he was “very afraid” given that a few months ago he had suffered another robbery in which “they had put a gun to his head and a knife to his neck. They left me tied up and kidnapped. I thought they were going to do the same to me with the zip ties.”
At a given moment when the robbers were “going up and down,” Rigo said that he grabbed the shotgun, which he had had time to load. “I told my wife to stay in the room and not move. The two brothers appeared and hit me. “They broke my spine,” he explained. The moment they pounced on him again – “we were very close” – the retiree, who was 78 years old at the time, pulled the trigger. “I never thought about shooting. It was in self-defense. I didn’t attack, they attacked me, which is not the same. I was attacked with the shotgun in my hands, and what was I going to do? I shot big. “I didn’t know where he had shot,” he said.
The brother of the deceased: “It was all very fast”
For his part, Fredy E., brother of the deceased, assured that at no time did they show any violence before the shooting: “I was very nervous and anxious, I just wanted to leave. I think we carried two backpacks [con 15.000 euros procedentes de una caja fuerte]. We then began to climb the stairs, my brother in front of me. Suddenly we found Pau with the shotgun pointed, telling my brother: ‘I’ll kill you’, and he shot him. My brother reacted by lamenting ‘he killed me, he killed me’ and fell to the side. Everything was very fast, there was no time to do anything,” Fredy said. Visibly moved, he told the court: “It’s torture for me, it’s remembering it day after day,” at which point the judge ordered a recess.
When the oral hearing resumed, the accused insisted that it was “something very surprising.” “I went to grab my brother and I saw that Pau was loading the shotgun again, I turned around and we started a struggle. I lunged at him to take the shotgun from him, but until then he had not received any blows. I hit him to make him drop the shotgun. When it fell to the ground I was able to snatch it from him, I grabbed my brother and threw the shotgun into the field.”
Fredy E. ended his speech by being “very sure” that if at any time before the shot he had hit the old man, “he would not be sitting here.” “They may say I’m the baddest person in the world, but I know exactly what happened. Before the shot, at no time did I attack him. It was a bad decision [perpetrar el robo] and I wanted to leave because I know I was doing a bad thing. I’m not here to blame you or tell you that you’re a murderer. I have empathy for him, he could be my grandfather,” he concluded.
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