John Poulos: what was his life like in the United States, before prison?

After 18 months, the femicide of Valentina Trespalacios was found guilty by the Colombian justice system. After a 10-hour hearing in which she maintained her innocence and apologized to the Bogota DJ’s family, American John Poulos was sentenced to 42 years and 8 months in prison. This was his life before prison.

The 36-year-old US citizen was described by his wife as an “abusive” man. John and Ashley Poulos married in 2009 and are the parents of three children, one of whom suffered from childhood cancer when he was four years old.. According TelemundoRepublican Paul Ryan helped the family get the boy into an experimental treatment that helped him beat the disease and invited the man and his son to the State of the Union address in 2018.

According to his still wife, the marriage deteriorated after his son’s illness. “The relationship between John and I was abusive, which led me to file for divorce in 2021,” Ashley explained to C.B.S.. Man transferred family funds overseas and abandoned family in Wisconsin. “His actions triggered a terrible divorce process that has not yet been completed,” the woman said.

According to the woman, John Poulos not only took all his funds out of the United States, He also lived in places like Cyprus, Türkiye and Ukraine. It turned out that the man decided not to send money for the support of his children, leaving them abandoned and without resources. Upon learning of Valentina’s femicide, Ashley sent her condolences to her family and spoke of the man’s “controlling and abusive” nature.

The feminicide of Valentina Trespalacios

January 22, 2023, Valentina Trespalacios was murdered. On June 4, 2024, John Nelson Poulos was sentenced to more than 42 years in prison for the femicide of the DJ. The events occurred in apartment 802, of the exclusive Capadocia building, in the north of Bogotá, which had been rented by the American to spend time with the DJ, as he stated.

The prosecution determined that John Nelson Poulos suffocated Valentina Trespalacios and, after her death, transported her body in a suitcase to a garbage container located the Cámbulos park, in Engativá, where he abandoned it. ​Then a recycler found the human remains.

John Nelson Poulos was captured by Interpol in Panama, from where he intended to flee to Türkiye to hide from Colombian justice. He was found guilty of the femicide of Valentina Trespalacios and must serve 42 years and 8 months in prison in Colombia, after which he will be expelled from the country.