The accused of shooting to death the kiosk owner Roberto Sabo during a robbery committed last November in the Buenos Aires town of Ramos Mejía assured this Tuesday, on the first day of the trial to which he is subjected, that he had no intention of killing and that he “escaped “A shot while struggling with the victim.
Judicial sources confirmed to Télam that Leandro Suárez (29) declared on the opening day of the debate before the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) 2 of La Matanza, before which he said that he entered the kiosk attended by Sabo (45) “with the intention of stealing but not killing” and that after a struggle with the merchant “a shot escaped”.
The accused, who answered the questions of the prosecutor Sergio Antín, also acknowledged that the two seized firearms belonged to him, one at the Sabo kiosk and the other when he was arrested.
“This story seems very weak and inconsistent to me, in addition, he could not answer the question they asked him regarding the mechanics of this fact,” Humberto Prospero told Télamone of the lawyers who represents the kiosk owner’s family as a private victim and who belongs to Fernando Burlando’s team.
It is that the prosecution determined that Sabo received four bullet wounds, two in the chest and two in the face, for which the version given by the accused regarding that they escaped is not consistent.
In addition to Suárez’s testimony, judges Arturo Gavier, Lucila Pacheco and Diego Burgueño heard Paula’s statement, Sabo’s widow, who noted the lack of money and some of her husband’s belongings stolen after the crime.
The day continued with seven more testimonies, including that of the taxi driver who took Suárez and a minor who was accompanying him to the kiosk -declared incompetent for being 15 years old- and that at first the investigators believed that it was a accomplice, which was later discarded.
The TOC 2 of La Matanza, located at 2417 Mendoza Street in the town of San Justo, went to an intermediate room for next Thursday at 8:30 with the arguments of the parties.
Suárez is tried for the crime of “aggravated robbery for the use of a firearm and for the participation of a minor, homicide criminis causae, carrying and illegal possession of a weapon, aggravated robbery and aggravated robbery, all in real contest with each other “which provides for a life sentence.
The defendant, who has a criminal record and had finished serving a sentence in August 2020, is currently detained in court.
“I hope they give him a life sentence, that he stays inside and rots there. He is a son of a bitch, he ruined my life and my family and he is here as if he had nothing, ”Tomás Sabo, one of the victim’s sons, told Télam during the fourth intermission.
While, Sergio Sabo, Roberto’s father, highlighted the speed of justice for the start of the oral debate and regretted not having arrived on time to enter the room and listen to Suárez himself.
“He said he was sorry and apologized to the family. He was drunk and drugged, and yet he shot my son six times. He didn’t care about anything, if he kills, he kills”, he expressed.
According to the trial presented by the first instance prosecutor, Federico Medone, Sabo’s crime was committed within the framework of a criminal raid that began on November 7, 2021, when the defendant and the girl who accompanied him went to a remises agency in Ciudadela and asked to travel to Ramos Mejía.
Both were taken by the driver of a black Ford Focus to that area, where Suárez asked to stop for a few minutes at a kiosk located on Avenida de Mayo and Alvarado, in the Ramos Mejía commercial area.
There he got off alone and entered the “Drugstore Pato” kiosk armed with “a 7.65 mm semi-automatic pistol with suppressed numbering and loaded with at least one cartridge, and a .22 caliber revolver,” according to the investigation.
Once inside the store, he intimidated Sabo with those weapons, seized 10,000 pesos from the sales and fired four shots at the kiosk, two of them with an exit hole, and died almost instantly, according to the accusation.
Leaving the kiosk, the assailant intimidated the taxi driver who had taken him to the place with weapons and stole 6,000 pesos from the collection, the cell phone and the car, in which he fled with the teenager.
on the run, the Focus collided with a tree, at which time the two crew members got out and entered a supermarket with the intention of pretending to be customers and taking the opportunity to change their clothes and avoid being identified.
After that, and always under threat with weapons, they stole the motorcycle and belongings from a delivery, until they were finally arrested on Avenida de Mayo and Rivadavia, in Ramos Mejía, during a police operation.
