The parents of Tahiel Contrerasthe six-year-old boy who was run over in 2020 in the Buenos Aires district of La Matanza, as a result of an alleged illegal bite, testified this Monday as witnesses in the first and only day of the oral and public trial which was held at the headquarters of the National University of La Matanza, and stated that their “only interest is that justice be done to preserve the memory” of their son.
“My interest is to preserve the memory of my son and for that I need justice to be done,” he said. Luciano Guillermo Contrerasfather of the deceased child before the Criminal Court consultation No. 4, at the beginning of his testimonial statement.
In the same sense, Tahiel’s mother expressed herself, Noelia Abigail Diazwho also declared on this day in which both were anguished when reconstructing the event, from which they also “resulted in injuries,” according to the investigation.
“Now without having him -by Tahiel- they killed us in life, we don’t have a reason to liveDiaz said in his statement.
The parents are not aware that the suspects have approached them the day of the event to corroborate their condition, as they declared.
The facts
The event occurred in a pandemic, on September 13, 2020, as estimated, at 4:45 p.m., at the intersection of Provincial Route No. 21 and the Soldado Sosa artery in the town of Laferrere, a “densely populated” area.
The defendants Nahuel Agustín Olivera, a 24-year-old baker, a native of Gregorio de Laferrere, and Alexis Leonel Escribanti, a 26-year-old radiologist technician, a native of Villa Luzuriaga, who, according to the 2021 trial request document, had known each other since the school and frequented the “picodrome”.
They arrived at this instance with “effective prison” and differentiated defenses, their lawyers detailed to Télam.
Different witnesses agreed to mention the “roar” that was heard before the impact and the “extraordinary” speed with which the first car passed, “driven by Escribanti.”
Statements on the first day
This Monday, at least seven witnesses testified, including the child’s mother, the father, the woman who was driving the Fox model car “stopped at the traffic light” that ended up hitting the family after being hit by the car Olivera drove, others drivers of vehicles that were passing through the area that day, a young man who worked at a nearby service station, and a man who lived 20 meters from the event, who assisted the relatives.
The woman who was driving a Fox model car said during her statement that “the impact was very great” and she felt “the sensation of flying, that the car rises and falls”, which caused her to vanish and then, when she got out of the car Together with her companion, she saw Tahiel’s parents and was “shocked” because at that moment she realized that “someone had been left” below, the child, and residents of the place and the father himself tried to move the vehicle to release the body. .
“If -Olivera- had come slowly, he would not have hit me as he did,” considered the woman, who made herself available to justice immediately, and who also said that in the moment before the impact she had the feeling that they were “running “.
“My interest is to preserve the memory of my son and for that I need justice to be done.”Luciano Guillermo Contreras
For her part, the companion, another woman, expressed that she remembers “the red car with that kid – pointing to Olivera – who didn’t care about anything, just his vehicle.”
The trial, in charge of Criminal Court No. 4 made up of judges Nicolás Grappasonno, Gerardo Clemente Gayol and Franco Fiumarabegan after 9:30 a.m. and included the statements of the witnesses and the arguments, until it ended at 10:00 p.m.
The La Matanza Homicide Prosecutor’s Office was represented by Sergio Alejandro Antin, who informed Télam that the sentence will be read next Friday, at 2:00 p.m., by telematic means.
Olivera and Escribanti were indicted for “Illegal speed test -known as ‘picada’- in real contest with simple homicide -de Tahiel- by way of eventual intent in an ideal contest with repeated minor injuries on two occasions – to Tahiel’s mother and father -“. There are at least three crimes, explained the lawyer for the injured party, Alberto Palacio.
“In general, the sentences for simple homicide are from 8 to 25 years and, in this case, the competition means that one can ask for a longer sentence,” the lawyer said.
“We hope that the cover of simple homicide with intent continues,” Perrone said about the Tahiel case
Viviam Perrone, a reference for the Association of Mothers of Pain and mother of the victim Kevin Sedano, accompanied the family of Tahiel Contreras this Monday, during the oral and public trial, and predicted that the cover of “simple homicide with intent” would remain until the end of the process.
“The good thing was that from the beginning, the case was labeled as simple homicide with intent and that the two drivers who were running this illegal race were detained,” Perrone told Télam, before starting the trial, holding a sign with the image of his son and another with that of Tahiel with the request for “justice”.
“We found out about this trial as soon as it happened, I remember that we were in the midst of a pandemic and despite that, we came to La Matanza to accompany the family, I will never forget that it was a very cold night, that they were sitting outside next to a little fire with terrible sadness and I said ‘I’m going to try to accompany them whenever I can’, reconstructed the reference.
In this sense, he added that they helped them with the first contacts with the National Road Safety Agency, also asking for a psychologist.
During the trial, Perrone sat in the front row and assisted the child’s mother and father whenever he deemed necessary.
“We hope that at the end of the trial it will continue to be labeled like this, that they give them the corresponding sentence, because they knew perfectly well what they were doing when they decided to run in this race. This is how they took the life of six-year-old Tahiel forever. The family is now has its sentence given, we hope that these drivers also have it, that justice is done and that the Tahiel-Kevin bill is dealt with from the National Congress,” he concluded.
They also attended the National University of La Matanza, where the trial was held, to support the family, the reference for Relatives of Victims of the Massacre hurts, Evelyn Galdi; and the executive director of the National Road Safety Agency, Pablo Matínez Carignano.
The ANSV collaborated with the Justice during the process under the figure of “amicus curiae” (friends of the court) and assisted the family from the beginning.
In October 2020, they presented the Tahiel-Kevin Bill (in homage to the son of Viviam Perrone) in the National Congress, which awaits its parliamentary progress and seeks to create the figure of “road homicide” equating it to homicide simple, which provides for a penalty of 8 to 25 years in prison for anyone who causes a death running illegal bites, they specified, among other key points.
The project was presented again in May 2022 “so that it does not lose parliamentary status” and this year in ordinary sessions “we will return to the charge to try to get it out,” national deputy Ramiro Gutiérrez (Frente de Todos), a signatory of the the initiative, last Friday.
“We are going for the highest possible sentence, which would represent an important event in the path of general justice for the victims of traffic incidents,” he added.
For his part, the representative of Olivera’s defense, Reynaldo Bandini, told Télam on Monday that “in reality, what there is is a car accident and if a culpable homicide were to correspond, there is no eventual fraud in any way. The fraud eventual places my defendant in the same position as a simple homicide, with the same sentence expected after 8 years. In the case of culpable homicide, the sentence would be a conditional execution of less than three years and he has already been detained for two years.” .
Meanwhile, Escribanti’s defense lawyer, Horacio Casalla, told Télam that he will request the acquittal of his client because “there is no evidence of the existence of a career test. demonstrated, you can be talking about a traffic violation, which is a very different thing”.
As indicated by both lawyers, Olivera will testify in the trial, but Escribanti will not do so because “he already did so in the previous stage.”
The victim’s relatives and friends were very moved at different moments of the trial when they heard the reconstruction of the witnesses.
The evidence included videos from public and private security cameras, accident reports, police reports and testimonial statements.
At least 150 relatives and neighbors of Laferrere blocked Florencio Varela street at the height of Ombú, in San Justo, at the door of the University to support the family before the trial began.
Upon entering the podium, the court asked the injured party that the people who went to support the family complete the cut and stand on the sidewalk.
In the afternoon, the same group of people continued to wait for the family at the door in an accompanying demonstration.
According to the investigation by the prosecution, Escribanti was aboard a Volkswagen Vento model and Olivera aboard a Chevrolet Corsa model, when they “decided” to carry out an illegal dive, driving along the road at a “superlative” speed, avoiding other cars. and “creating a situation of danger to the life or physical integrity of people who were traveling on public roads,” they said.
When losing control of the vehicles, according to the investigation, the Corsa collided with a third vehicle that was circulating in the slow lane according to regulations (the Fox car), and was displaced towards the sidewalk, where Luciano Guillermo Contreras, Noelia and Noelia were hit. Abigail Díaz -the child’s parents- and Tahiel, who were waiting to cross to go have an ice cream and then “surprise him by going to the square -in the context of isolation due to the pandemic-“, the mother replied to Télam.
All three suffered polytrauma, but Tahiel died instantly.
