The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed two appeals that sought to annul the 29-year prison sentence imposed on the perpetrator of the femicide committed against the teenager Angela Aguirre (16)José Alberto Cedeño Rodríguez and his godfather José Antonio Zorrilla Zorrilla.
Consequently, said sentence remained unscathed, as read in sentence number 610 written by Judge Carmen Marisela Castro and endorsed by her colleagues from the Criminal Chamber, Elsa Gómez and Maikel Moreno.
The sentence narrates how the events occurred that began when the teenager Ángela Aguirre (16) asked her parents for permission to attend the birthday of her friend José Alberto Cedeño. The celebration was on March 23, 2019 at the Italo Club in Puerto Ordaz (Bolívar), where Ángela’s parents took her.
From the aforementioned club, the birthday boy, family and friends took a boat to travel to La Terekaya Island, located in the Caroní River. Once at the site, José and Ángela walked away from everyone to immerse themselves in the water, even though they warned them of the danger due to the depth of the Caroní in that area.
The investigation by the Public Ministry indicates that those present at the celebration “must have necessarily realized the true intentions of citizen José Alberto Cedeño, however, they remained static in the face of such a serious risk.”
Cedeño convinces the teenager to go to deeper waters ”in order to satisfy her sexual instincts,” says the Public Ministry’s investigation. Minutes passed and Cedeño reported that the teenager was missing. Everyone returned to the Italo Club while they informed Angela’s parents that she had been lost in the river. Three days later, that is, on March 26, 2019, Ángela’s body was located in the vicinity of the El Rey spa, Caroní River, Puerto Ordaz (Bolívar).
In April of that year, 2019, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice intervened and ordered that the file be brought before a court competent in crimes of violence against women because ”indications of sexual abuse against the victim emerge from the proceedings, who “She’s a teenager.”
Subsequently, the file is filed in Caracas, specifically in the First Trial Court with Jurisdiction in Crimes of Violence against Women. In that instance, the trial began on October 21, 2019, against seven defendants.
The aforementioned trial concluded on August 23, 2021 with the sentencing of José Alberto Cedeño Rodríguez and his godfather José Antonio Zorrilla Zorrilla to 29 years in prison for aggravated femicide, among others. Both were acquitted of the crime of aggravated sexual violence.
While Glauber Jesús Zorrilla Ríos, Orlando Abraham Salazar Vargas and Wilmer Antonio Díaz Urbano were found guilty of the crime of omission of relief, and were sentenced to pay a fine equivalent to 275 tax units (Bs 2,475 currently). Full freedom was decreed for all. And Joselyb Gregoria Barreto González and Dayana Carolina Niceza Cancino were acquitted.
These decisions were ratified on May 8 by the Single Chamber of the Court of Appeals with Jurisdiction for Crimes of Violence Against Women of the Capital Region, which declared the appeals filed against the sentences inadmissible.
By virtue of this, public defenders Natanael Josué Acevedo Fernández and Anabel Josefina Monsalve Lovaton, went before the Criminal Chamber of the TSJ to file two appeals with which they intended to reverse the 29-year sentence imposed on Cedeño and Zorrilla.
The magistrates analyzed the appeals and found weaknesses in the complaints, which is why they declared them dismissed.
”The appellant must not only express dissatisfaction with the ruling, but also point out exactly which norms are violated and clearly state the reasons and factual and legal foundations that demonstrate that the respondent (Court of Appeals) actually incurred in a vice, the relevance of which warrants the annulment of the sentence,” the magistrates respond to one of the complaints contained in the appeal.
”The appellant generically questioned the second instance ruling, that is, without stating directly and precisely what his duty was,” the magistrates added in another response, thereby supporting their decision that results in the ratification of the sentence imposed on Cedeño and Zorrilla.
