She closed her eyelids for a few seconds so as not to see when the judge read that all the walls in her sister’s apartment were stained with blood. She swallowed hard and anguished when they reported that everything there was broken; and she clutched her head in anguish and disbelief – despite the fact that she had known for a long time – that Fanny Aguiar had been stabbed to death 50 times. On the other side of the wall of the room of the Criminal Court of 40or Turn, about 30 people from the trans community watched the live broadcast from the room carefully, in which the two defendants behaved in a dissimilar way. Aguiar’s partner, sentenced to 24 years in prison, rocked anxiously but with self-confidence: she looked in different directions without paying attention. The other defendant – whom Judge María Sunhary de las Carreras decided to acquit in a large ruling with multiple references to national and international jurisprudence – cried, while extending her arms to the victim’s sister – who carried a photo with her face – swearing that he had nothing to do with it.
The theory of the prosecution in charge of Raúl Iglesias was that the two men were responsible and that is why he had asked for 28 years in prison for Aguiar’s partner and 30 years for his companion. He requested it because he understood that he had been treacherous and because he believed that there had been a transvestite, which would have made the case the first such conviction in the country’s history. Anyway, The ruling was unprecedented: the conviction was for femicide “especially aggravated for having been committed out of contempt and contempt for the victim’s status as a trans woman.”
He decided, among other things, because “the couple functioned within heteronormative parameters” and that was seen in the way they referred to each other. “I killed my wife,” he confessed after the crime.
Despite the fact that it was she, from her work as a sex worker, who fed the home, that did not put her in a privileged situation. “She belonged to a doubly marginalized group,” argued the judge: sex work and the trans community.
The judge also ruled out treachery because Aguiar was able to defend himself – in fact he had defensive injuries – and the moral component is included in other charges for which he was convicted.
“Don’t cry anymore, bo, you’re going home”, the condemned man told the acquitted, who did not stop crying since he heard the ruling. Unbelievingly, he asked his lawyer if he was going to his house. “Enjoy the time you have in freedom, this is not over,” a member of the prosecution team told him, already anticipating that he was going to appeal the decision. They all appealed. The defendant’s defense for his part and the prosecution appealed the sentence for not having accepted the request for 28 years in prison and the acquittal of the other defendant.
“Deficit” and the acquittal of the accused for a failure in the investigation
Judge Sunhary made two criticisms of the investigation and one of them could have led to the acquittal of a defendant.
According to the security camera of the victim’s building, the now acquitted man was inside for five minutes. The only way to verify that he was inside the discussion and/or crime scene –since there is no genetic material or other evidence to place him there– was that the call made to 911 due to the victim’s screams, was have done during those minutes.
That could not be verified because the time of the call was never reported from the Ministry of the Interior. Neither did the person who made the call.
The magistrate criticized that there was a “deficit” in the investigation: that the forensic expert had not appeared at the scene of the crime. In the medical study it could not be verified that the injuries were caused by more than one person.
the case history
On November 15, 2018, the two accused went by taxi to Aguiar’s house to look for money to consume drugs. They asked the taxi driver to wait for them at the door. She wasn’t there, so they waited for her until she arrived.
After a few minutes, the man, now acquitted, came out and asked him to take him to his sister’s house, but the driver refused because he had not paid for the previous trip. Aguiar and the condemned man began to argue and he stabbed her – he gave her more than 50 – with a kitchen knife.
He changed his clothes, ran out carrying a 13-kilo jug and a backpack with documents and money that he stole from the woman, now deceased. The entire scene lasted 17 minutes. He was intercepted by a police officer who arrested him on the spot.
