With various expert evidence and about twenty testimonials, presented by the Chief Prosecutor of Antofagasta Cristian Aguilar Aranela in the oral trial, the Oral Criminal Trial Court of Antofagasta sentenced two defendants, of foreign nationality, to 17-year sentences. and 183 days of imprisonment in its maximum degree and the legal accessories, for the crime of qualified homicide committed with treachery against the young truck driver Byron Castillo, who was thrown from a bridge towards the route that connects Mejillones with Antofagasta on February 10 of 2022.
Likewise, the Court sentenced a third defendant, a minor and a foreign national, to a mixed sentence of 7 years of internment in a closed regime and 3 years of internment in a semi-closed regime.
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The investigation of the case was directed by the Chief Prosecutor, Cristian Aguilar Aranela, with the collaboration of Sip personnel from the 2nd Police Station of Antofagasta and Labocar from the city.
In this regard, Chief Prosecutor Aguilar clarified that “the Court accepted the requests of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and finally sentenced the 3 defendants for the crime of qualified homicide committed with treachery against the young truck driver. The various expert evidence presented and testimonials (some twenty of people) were instrumental in this case”.
It should be remembered that the event occurred on February 10, 2022, around 11:00 a.m., after an altercation occurred on Route A-1, at an overpass on a railway line, between some truck drivers and a group of foreigners who were traveling along the road, among whom were the 3 defendants, who would have approached the victim, an adult and a trucker who was in the place and took advantage of the fact that he was alone (the other truckers were had withdrawn from the place) attacked them and would have thrown them from a level crossing, dying on the spot.
According to the autopsy report, the victim died from trauma to the head, chest, abdomen, and upper and lower extremities compatible with a fall from a height.
treachery
For the court, the accredited facts make it possible to consider treachery in the actions of the defendants.
“Article 12 number 1 of the Penal Code establishes that a crime is committed with treachery ‘when it is done treasonously or safely.’ With regard to the case in question, the doctrine defines “on insurance” as “the use of conditions
In fact, they allow the perpetrator of the crime to marginalize those risks to his person inherent to the criminal action, which may come from the probable reaction of the victim (attacking a sleeping person), it may also consist of hiding the body of the agent ensuring the impossibility of defense of the passive subject (the sniper, the ambush)’ (GARRIDO, M. 2007. Criminal law general part. Volume 1, 2nd. Ed, Editorial Jurídica de Chile, p. 246)”, states the ruling.
The resolution adds that: “It should be noted that the majority doctrine states that the concurrence of a subjective element is necessary for this aggravating factor to be verified, namely, that the perpetrator acts ‘with the purpose of taking advantage, for the execution of the punishable act, the defenseless situation in which the victim finds herself or in which she has been placed’ (MERA, J. Commentary on article 12 of the Penal Code. In: COUSO, Jaime et al. 2011. Commented Penal Code, First Book (art. 1 a 105), Legal Publishing, Chile, p. 309)”.
“In the present case, the attack was carried out, objectively, in such a way that the victim was not in a position to offer any resistance. This follows from the fact that the defendants attacked the victim from behind and while he was alone, since they were a group of three. On the other hand, everything indicates that the defendants acted with knowledge of the aforementioned circumstances and with the specific purpose of taking advantage of those, since they decided to deploy their attack just when the penultimate truck driver, the witness PAGA, left the place ”, he concludes. .
