The taxi driver who was robbed and got his eyes out: & laquo; I am a living dead & raquo;

The calvary of José Antonio, a 58-year-old Valencian taxi driver, started at dawn on March 19, 2015. It was the night of the last race of his life, which cost him both eyes and left him with a post-traumatic syndrome that It keeps you in a permanent hell. «I am a living dead since then. I'm sorry for my children, who are the ones who take care of me, ”he said yesterday during the trial against his alleged aggressor, Aitor T, the 20-year-old who got into his taxi on December 19 in Valencia and who José Antonio is accused of sticking his fingers in his eyes until one of them exploded. Literally. The Civil Guard agents who testified at the trial confirmed that they found splashes of blood on the roof over the driver's seat that would correspond to the explosion of the eyeball. The wounds did not reach the same level of devastation in the other eye, but were enough to completely blind the victim.

José Antonio explained that he picked up Aitor after 3.30 am at the exit of a disco in the vicinity of the City of Arts and Sciences and that he asked him to take him home in Ontinyent, a town located 83 kilometers from Valencia . The taxi driver expressed doubts about the bulky amount of the race that, he said, would exceed 80 euros. However, Aitor indicated that he was carrying money and showed him the wallet to overcome the driver's reluctance.

When they arrived in the immediate vicinity of the town, José Antonio refused to enter the path indicated by Aitor and stopped the vehicle next to an industrial estate. And there, when the taximeter marked 97 euros, it was when, according to his story, the aggression began. Aitor, he said, tried to get out of the car and, when he took his arm to claim the money, he jumped straight into his eyes "like a cat." Blind, he tried to defend himself by biting the defendant's finger and getting out of the vehicle, but his assailant followed him and insisted with his eyes as well as giving him some kicks before stealing his backpack with the proceeds . The version of the alleged aggressor, for whom the prosecutor asks for 13 years in prison for injuries and theft, differs significantly. Aitor confirmed that he got into the taxi, but said it was the driver who started the discussion by claiming the race money. In fact, his defense requested the acquittal claiming legitimate defense. «I told him not to stop on the road, to take me home and that, when we arrived, I would pay him. I showed him the wallet so he could see that he had money and he told me that it was not enough, that he also gave him the phone. In the end, he swatted and threw the wallet and I tried to run away. A struggle began and we both fell down the passenger seat, ”said the accused. Once he managed to flee, he said, he called his parents to pick them up at the place where he took refuge.

The private accusation , meanwhile, claimed for the defendant a prison sentence of 16 years in jail when he understood, moreover, that he acted with deviance. The lawyer of the taxi driver, likewise, claimed compensation of 760,000 euros . Civil guards who intervened in the trial affected the defendant, who was located in the hospital, denied in the first instance having taken any effect of the vehicle. However, they said, when they asked the father to give them the effects that he had, he gave them the backpack of the taxi driver in which the collection of the day was, his documentation and a dataphone. «I think he gave us the backpack thinking it was his son's. When we checked what was inside and that it belonged to the taxi driver, we stopped him, ”said one of the agents. The local police officers who carried out the test that day confirmed that when they arrived at the scene, where they came thinking that it was an accident, they found only José Antonio with his face covered in blood. Inside the car there was no trace of the backpack or the supposed money that the aggressor would have given to the taxi driver. And, as the police and civil guards pointed out, José Antonio told them that the discussion was caused by disagreements in the price of the race. The defendant, according to his version, would have given him a lower amount than the one marked by the taximeter and, when the driver recriminated it, the aggression began.

Forensics who testified at the hearing, meanwhile, explained that, in their opinion, Aitor tried to simulate an injury that would have occurred as a result of the struggle. "There was no evidence that there was an injury despite several tests, but the defendant was still wearing a collar, which makes us think he might be simulating it," they explained. In the same way, the civil guard who instructed the report stressed that the accused attributed all the injuries he presented to the struggle with the taxi driver. However, as he explained, they could later verify that the wound on his lip was caused by a friend after an argument at the disco. «His friend told us that he himself had given him the header and then another confirmed it. He didn't tell us at any time that he had had a fight before, ”he insisted. However, the defendant had already told José Antonio during the journey that he was going home because he had had a fight with a friend. "I thought he was a good kid when I took him. But then I started to see strange things, mouth gestures and I got scared, ”the victim recalled.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Valencia
• Civil Guard

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