The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) left unscathed the 30-year prison sentence imposed on Raúl Ernesto Lovera Cañizales, who was found guilty of the murder of his partner Greicy Carolina Bracho Lugo (40). Greicy was an Administrator and had two children with Raúl in a 20-year relationship, according to witnesses.
The decision of the Criminal Chamber was reflected in sentence No. 41 published on February 12 with the signature of its three members: Maikel Moreno (speaker), Carmen Marisela Castro and Elsa Gómez.
The events began on January 17, 2020, the day Greicy and her partner were sharing their residence located in the Tierra del Sol urbanization, San Joaquín (Carabobo), according to the ruling.
Once the sharing was over, Greicy and Raúl went out to give the tail to a friend. On the way, an argument broke out between the couple. Originally the man informed the Cicpc that in the middle of that discussion, Greicy asked to stop the vehicle to leave on foot. But then it turned out that all that was a lie. The investigation showed that the subject beat the woman which included kicking her and then threw her into a vacant lot where the woman died. The next day, neighbors inform the police about a body that was found on land adjacent to the La Pradera urbanization, San Joaquín (Carabobo).
Cicpc agents went to the site and interviewed Raúl Lovera there, who reiterated that he knew nothing about that murder.
But upon observing contradictions in his statement, Cicpc agents detained the subject and performed “a technical criminalistic inspection” through which they detected scratches on certain parts of his body. They also inspect his shoes, whose marks match those located on Greicy’s body at the level of the right scapular region, according to the sentence.
The trial against Raúl Lovera took place between September 24, 2021 and October 26, 2023, when he was found guilty of the crime of aggravated femicide and was sentenced to the maximum penalty, that is, 30 years.
That conviction was ratified on February 10, 2025 by the Court of Appeals with Jurisdiction over Crimes of Violence against Women of the Judicial District of the state of Carabobo.
Given this circumstance, Raúl Lovera’s defense lawyers filed an appeal before the Criminal Chamber of the highest court of Venezuela. When analyzing the appeal, the magistrates decided to declare it inadmissible because it was submitted outside the established periods.
In that sense, the magistrates did the math and indicated that this type of appeal, where the maximum penalty sentence is intended to be reversed, had to be presented before April 7, 2025 and Lovera’s lawyers did so on the 11th of that same month, that is, outside the period of 15 days established by the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure, the ruling says.
The magistrates recalled that, in general, for the Criminal Chamber to hear a cassation appeal, certain requirements must be met, such as: i) that the person exercising it is duly legitimized by law; ii) that it be filed within the legal period established for it; iii) that the decision being appealed can be challenged in cassation by express provision of the law; and, iv) that the appeal is duly founded.
