The trial for the crime of Lucio Dupuy, the 5-year-old boy murdered in November 2021 in La Pamparesumes this Monday when the parties to the process will request the penalties for the victim’s mother, Magdalena Espósito Valenti, and his partner, Abigail Páez, who have already been found guilty of the homicide and sexual abuse of the minor.
Judicial sources informed Télam that the hearing of allegations will not be public and that after it a new date will be set, within a period of five days, in which the sentence will finally be announced.
And although the serious crimes attributed to both women only provide for life imprisonment, it will remain to define if the accessory is added for an indefinite period.
On February 2, the Court of Hearing of the Pampas capital, made up of Judge Alejandra Ongaro, and Judges Andrés Olié and Daniel Sáez Zamora, determined that Lucio’s mother was responsible for the “triple aggravated homicide” by link, treachery and cruelty “of her son.
while to Páez attributed the same crime to him and also that of “sexual abuse”.l with carnal access by anal route, executed with a phallic object, aggravated for being the guardian and for having been committed against a minor under 18 years of age, taking advantage of the pre-existing situation of coexistence, as a continuing crime”.
“Next Monday’s hearing for the Lucio Dupuy case will not be public because it will be a continuation of the trial, which was oral, but not public, because the crime of sexual abuse was included in the accusation,” they explained from the Superior Court of Justice in a statement sent to Télam.
“At the hearing on Monday, the arguments of the parties on the sentence requests for the defendants will be heard. At the end of the hearing, the Court will announce the date of reading the sentence for the establishment of the sentences,” they indicated.
“This unfolded procedure of the process It is called a judgment of caesura and it is provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code of La Pampa,” they explained.
For his part, prosecutor Walter Martos, member of the team of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the First Judicial Circumscription, based in Santa Rosa, informed Télam that “the caesura of the debate, is the division of the trial in two, first the responsibility or not is discussed, which is what already happened with the guilty plea”.
Then, “the debate continues to establish what sentence corresponds to him”, but “the hearing is part of the trial, and for this reason it is not public.”
“There the sentence will be argued, and after that, the judges have five days to issue a sentence, which cannot be other than life, in what will surely be a public hearing like the one on February 2,” he explained.
While, Espósito Valenti and Páez remain housed in San Luis Penitentiary Unit 1 and they are not required to follow this Monday’s hearing in person.
In fact, the day the guilt was known, both carried out their daily activities in the prison and found out about the resolution when a judicial employee brought them a copy of the sentence.
Lucio’s crime
Lucio (5) was murdered on November 26, 2021 at the house on Allan Kardec Street at 2300 Santa Rosa, where he lived with his mother and her partner.
The Justice was able to establish that at 5:32 p.m. Lucio was seen alive for the last time and that between that time and 7:40 p.m., when both defendants left the apartment alone, Lucio was brutally beaten.
In turn, Páez took his girlfriend on a motorcycle to work as a waitress in a hotel restaurant in the Pampas capital and returned alone at 8:49 p.m., when she tried to revive the child and put him in the shower.
At 9:30 p.m., Páez left with Lucio in his arms for the care center in the Río Atuel neighborhood, attached to the apartment, but it was closed.
At that time the child was assisted by neighbors and finally transferred to Evita Hospital, where at 9:45 p.m. it was found that he was already dead.
For the court, the two women participated in the fatal beating and the boy was punched, kicked and beaten, as well as being stomped on the back by Páez (which could be determined by the mark left by his shoe), which caused internal injuries.
According to experts, the cause of death was a Cerebral edema as a consequence of polytrauma.
In their sentence of 126 pages, the judges also established that the child was a recurrent victim of physical, psychological and sexual violence; and that a “crescendo of violence” could be noticed based on the chats between the two accused since mid-October 2021.
In the messages it was possible to notice that the child was considered a nuisance to the couple’s relationship, that the two of them were not willing to risk.
