Acquittal sentence for Pablo Rigo, the 84-year-old man who shot and killed one of the thieves who attacked his home in Porreres (Mallorca) in February 2018. This ends the second trial for the octogenarian, although the sentence can be appealed.
The reporting magistrate of the second popular court that is trying the octogenarian – in 2023 he was acquitted but the sentence was annulled – has issued a sentence of acquittal. He does so days after the popular jury – made up of six women and three men – unanimously declared that Rigo was not guilty of the crime of homicide and acted in self-defense.
The judge has also handed down a conviction for the three defendants responsible for the violent robbery of an inhabited house in which one of the robbers died.
The resolution sentences the three accused to three years in prison for committing the robbery, with all of them having the aggravating circumstance of disguise and the mitigating circumstance of undue delay. Specifically, two of the assailants are given the mitigating circumstance of partial repair of the damage; and to the third assailant the analogical extenuating circumstance of confession. The sentence also imposes that they must jointly and severally compensate the victim of the robbery in the amount of 15,000 euros.
On the other hand, the robber who entered the house with his brother has also been sentenced to 2 months and 29 days of permanent location for a crime of injuries and must compensate the victim of the robbery with 25,500 euros.
I had no intention of killing him
A few days ago, the popular court considered that Rigo shot the thief in the eye and that he had no intention of killing him, quite the opposite of the prosecution’s thesis, which requested three years in prison for the old man and considered that the old man “went out for them” and shot to prevent them from stealing 15,000 euros that he had in a safe.
In the same verdict, the other three defendants were also found guilty, two of them for planning the robbery and the other – Fredy, the brother of the thief who died during the robbery – for carrying out these plans. The prosecutor requested five years in prison for all of them.
The members of the jury declared it proven that the robbers agreed, planned the robbery and committed it. According to the verdict, two of the robbers watched the house for days before; and they were the ones who drove the other two robbers by car so that they could access the interior of the house and commit the robbery.
The members of the jury unanimously considered it proven that they did use physical violence during the robbery and that not all of the stolen money was recovered. Finally, they spoke out against the pardon of the accused who were found guilty and the suspension of their sentences.
Initial request: four years
The Public Prosecutor’s Office initially requested four years in prison for the elderly man, but modified its brief during the trial by considering that “the incomplete exonerating circumstance of criminal responsibility of self-defense and the analogous mitigating circumstance of overcomeable fear” were possible. At the same time, the prosecutor demanded sentences totaling 16 years in prison for the three thieves.
After reading the verdict, the judge-president of the Jury Court, Rocío Martín, dictates the sentence.
The second trial began on November 8 at the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands. With a cane and a slow walk, Pablo Rigo appeared before a new popular court and confessed that it was a “martyrdom” to undergo this second trial at his age. The accused alleged that he shot the thief in a defensive gesture, and without his glasses on, to avoid the attack, but without any intention of ending the assailant’s life.
“I thought they were killing us”
«I thought they were killing us. “They say I didn’t do it right, but what was I supposed to do?” declared the old man before the jury. The events date back to February 24, 2018 when the thieves attacked the owner when he left his home hooded and “armed” with goat legs. They grabbed him by the neck and covered his mouth so he wouldn’t scream. They locked his wife in a room. They tore out the landline telephone cable and took the owner to the basement to open the safe for them.
For his part, Fredy, the brother of the deceased Mauricio Escobar, apologized to the old man because he considered that without his participation “these events would not have occurred.”
A year ago, the octogenarian was found guilty by a popular court with an insufficient majority of five votes, despite the fact that seven were needed. This unusual error went unnoticed until days later when it was detected and created great confusion and uncertainty. The president of the people’s court declared Rigo’s guilty verdict null and void. The Balearic Prosecutor’s Office asked the Court that the old man be retried. As a consequence, the magistrate ordered the trial to be repeated in the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands without issuing a sentence.
Pablo Rigo changed lawyers and his new lawyer then requested acquittal, considering that there was not a sufficient majority of votes to declare him guilty. The judge ruled out an acquittal ruling, arguing that “the defect outlined prevented us from knowing with certainty the decision that the Jury would have made.” Subsequently, the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJB upheld the appeal filed by Pablo Rigo’s defense and revoked the declaration of nullity of the object of the verdict. The Chamber considered that “there were no reasons to justify the annulment that occurred.” Later it was the Provincial Court that acquitted the old man.
On May 7, the Court held a hearing in which the Prosecutor’s Office requested the annulment of the sentence and therefore the repetition of the trial. Rigo’s defense argued that the appeal should not be admitted and the acquittal should be confirmed.
Three different lawyers
Now represented by a new lawyer – he has changed lawyers three times – Pablo Rigo sat on the bench again on November 8 and told the Court about the fear that occurred when the Escobar brothers attacked his home in February 2018 for the second time. time. He suspects that they were the same ones who had robbed him two months ago with the same method and with bare feet.
The first time they gagged him with zip ties, abandoned him in the basement and took the key to the garage. In the second robbery, he was approached at the entrance. They locked his wife in a room and he went down to the basement to open the safe. When he went back up to the ground floor, Rigo took the shotgun – which was already loaded – as a “deterrent” measure and only fired when he saw Fredy approaching to hit him with a goat’s leg. “I yelled ‘get out’ at them, but I couldn’t think they would attack me,” he said.
The “martyrdom” ends for Pablo Rigo, the protagonist of one of the recent episodes of the black chronicle that shocked Mallorcan society and awakened a wave of solidarity towards the elderly man. An event that also reopened the debate on legitimate self-defense in Spain. “God squeezes but does not suffocate, although it is suffocating me a little,” he acknowledged in a letter written in his own handwriting in response to the expressions of support received from prominent personalities and anonymous people.
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