A sister of the victim affirms that she confessed to her that Agustín S. abused her physically and psychologically but did not dare to report
For years his life was linked to that of Agustín S. The popular jury studying this week in the Court the case of the death and disappearance of María Dolores Sandoval heard this Wednesday the testimony of the ex-wife of the accused of killing and dismembering this woman in Cartagena in 2018. Protected by a screen, this witness recounted the violence to which, according to her version, the defendant subjected her. “She told me that she was a whore and that she was fat,” she recalled. She once threatened to cut my throat with a knife. A fury that, he maintained, was not limited only to her, but also to her daughters. “She Sometimes she came home from work and she had my biggest neck.”
That situation, the woman explained, was the trigger for a breakup in which she had the unconditional support of her family. “My father told me to hide all the knives and he slept that night on the sofa with everything under it,” she recounted. «He told me ‘tomorrow you and my granddaughters come with me’».
A step that did not come
The statement of this witness, who was married to the accused for years, was one of the main testimonies in a day in which the popular jury also heard the experiences of a son of the victim and several of his relatives. One of María Dolores’ sisters explained that she had confessed to her that Agustín subjected her to physical and psychological abuse. “She told me very bad things,” she maintained. «He pushed her, insulted her… she told me barbaric things». Some confessions that the victim apparently took the opportunity to launch when she had a free hand at home: “She called me in the mornings when he was working,” she said.
This family member repeatedly tried to convince María Dolores to report the alleged ill-treatment to the Police, but that step never took place. “She told me that she wanted to report it but she didn’t,” she snapped.
“He told me very bad things,” says a sister of the victim. «He pushed her, insulted her… she told me barbarities»
The rest of María Dolores’ brothers agreed to point out that since 2016, when the woman began her courtship with Agustín, relations with the family were cooling. “She told me that he would get very angry if she went out,” stressed another sister.
At Wednesday’s hearing, an agent of the National Police Corps who participated in the investigation of the case also gave a statement. This confirmed that the victim’s blood had been found both on a pillow in the house and in a freezer chest where Agustín, according to his own confession, hid the body after dismembering it.
The popular jury also had the opportunity this Wednesday to observe the recording on the reconstruction of the events that the Police carried out with Agustín. In these images you can hear the defendant – who faces 15 years and five months in prison for an alleged crime of homicide and another of desecration of the corpse – recount in detail how he dismembered the body. “I tried it first with a knife but I couldn’t, so I grabbed a mechanic’s saw,” he explained at the beginning of the story.
The parties confirmed their conclusions and are expected to present their reports this Thursday. Before the object of the verdict is delivered to the jury, Agustín will still have the right to a few last words.