The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed a appeal (of cassation) that sought to reverse the sentence of 14 years in prison imposed on two men accused of forcing a woman to sustain sexual relations in the trio modality.
This decision is contained in Judgment 036 drafted by Judge Carmen Marisela Castro and signed by her colleagues in the Criminal Chamber, Elsa Gómez and Maikel Moreno.
In that case, processed men are identified as Neyker Javier Guevara Aguilera and Yolbehiker Jesús Morillo Barreto.
In the house of the latter, (Las Terrazas, Antimano, Caracas) celebrated a birthday on June 6, 2021.
In a room in the house were the victim, his mother, Neyker and Yolbehiker. But, the victim’s mother retired and left them alone. Minutes later, Neyker and the victim move to another room to which Yolbehiker bursts later proposing to make a trio, says the sentence of the criminal hall where the facts are narrated.
The woman refuses to Yolbehiker’s proposal and that is when the defendants today make the decision to submit the victim “and begin to force her to have sex without consent …”.
Once the facts were denounced, police officers arrested the two men and placed them at the order of the Public Ministry. In that sense, on July 23, 2021, lawyer Karen Escobar Cermeño, in her status as prosecutor 136 with competence in defense for women, requested to open a trial against Neyker Guevara and Yolbehiker Morillo, for the alleged commission of crimes of aggravated sexual violence and aggravated physical violence.
Said approach was approved by the 1st Court of Control, Hearing and Measures of the Judicial Circuit regarding crimes of violence against women of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas that ordered the opening of the oral and private trial.
The aforementioned trial was held between September 13, 2022 and January 18, 2023 before the Fifth Court of Judgment of Caracas, which condemned them to fulfill the penalty of 17 years and 4 months in prison, after declaring them guilty of the crimes imputed by the Public Ministry.
This condemnatory decision was appealed on February 13, 2023 by the lawyers Gipsy Silva and Juan de Dios Duque, in their status as private defenders of the accused.
The year and a half later, specifically on August 2, 2024, the Court of Appeals with jurisdiction in the field of crimes of violence against women of the capital region, partially declared with place the appeal and consequently modified the sentence with respect to the computation of the penalty by shortening it to 14 years in prison.
The defense lawyers of Guevara and Morillo, insisted on reversing the sentence imposed, so they went to the Criminal Chamber of the Maximum Court of Venezuela, where they recorded a series of complaints expressed in a document called appeal. The complaints focused on the fact that, during the trial, evidence that could have favored the defendants, a situation that, in their discretion, had to correct the Court of Appeals, were allegedly assessed.
In this regard, the magistrates respond that “ It cannot be pretended that the Criminal Cassation Chamber is avoked as a third instance, that he knows about the valuation of the facts and evidence presented in the trial phase, in order to submit to review the decision issued in the first instance. ”
The magistrates emphasize that the lawyers who filed the appeal filed a generic and imprecise ” complaints, which is far from meeting the requirements required to marry a lawsuit destined to invalidate the sentence that condemned the accused. Consequently, the Criminal Chamber dismissed the appeal and left the 14 -year -old sentence imposed on Guevara and Morillo.
