Portrait of the widow 'Maje': Predator or victim of a parallel trial, of machismo and sexual morality

• Trial. The prosecutor of the 'Maje case': "She dominated the criminal plan to kill her husband and did it for her benefit"

• Trial: When a crime makes you popular: 'Maje' and Salva killed Antonio between lies, sex and obsessions

What is the most faithful portrait of

accused before a jury of plotting the murder of her husband Antonio?

That of a woman "predator" of men who managed a "deluded" to kill her husband and she could continue her life "like a party"?

Or that of one more victim of media judgments, aggravated in this case by macho and moralizing clichés?

All of them are features and qualifications used by accusations and defenses on the first day of the jury trial that started this Wednesday in Valencia for the so-called 'crime of Patraix', in which the two defendants are the aforementioned María Jesús Moreno and whoever was her lover, Salvador Rodrigo.

The popularity achieved by the protagonists of this criminal action against Antonio Navarro - married to her just a year before he was stabbed to death at the hands of Salvador - has been such that the press baptized them as they were known in their most familiar environment, 'Maje' and 'Save'.

And his story was baptized before public opinion as the "Maje case" or the "Black Widow of Patraix".

Labeling for the sake of simplicity is a routine not only practiced by the media.

Law professionals, as pieces of the social gear, also do it.

In fact, it has been a woman, Salvador's lawyer, Julita Martínez, who has used the appellation "predator" in the presentation of her defense brief.

Martínez supports his defense by presenting him as a "deluded" who fell into the arms of María Jesús and her psychological manipulation during the time they both shared work in a hospital, she as a nurse and he as an auxiliary.

Salvador Rodrigo, accused of the crime of Patraix.POOLEFE

In fact, he asks for the acquittal of his client alleging mental disorder, an argument that he intends to reinforce with an expert report from a forensic psychologist contributed to the case on the first day of the trial and, whose study, has forced to redo the calendar and postpone the statement of the two defendants to the final part of the process.

The arguments of Salvador's defense go directly to point out who his lover was.

"The harmful bond that was established in that relationship is not normal" and that ended up destroying two families, that of Antonio Navarro and that of Salvador himself, married and with a daughter, explained the lawyer.

Salva is today, she said, a repentant who apologizes for the damage caused and has helped in the investigation.

Proof of his collaborative attitude is that he led the police to the murder weapon, a kitchen knife that he had thrown into a septic tank.

"His conscience and his faith," said the lawyer, have made him reflect.

"There was indeed a plan," but it was concocted by the accused. "He has also clarified that he has tried to rescue a pension plan worth 18,000 euros to compensate the family financially. But he has not succeeded.

The tags"

Salvador, therefore, was a "puppet" in the hands of the woman with whom he fell in love.

But, according to his lawyer, his behavior cannot be explained except from the mental derangement.

An argument that, according to the thesis of the sexist lynching of María Jesús, also promotes the image of a deceitful woman and contributes to the sexist pattern that, according to the defendant's lawyer, has been applied to her since the case became known.

The appellation of 'Maje' for the accused and the label "Caso Maje" are, in the opinion of the lawyer Javier Boix, a lawyer hired by her, two more examples of the "parallel trial" to which she has been subjected since she was arrested for her alleged participation in the crime.

Boix, a prestigious professor of Criminal Law, has focused his preliminary report before the popular jury on placing his client as a "victim" of a public lynching and of a "parallel trial" built on the basis of self-interested leaks to the press to turn it into a a "sexual predator", a "Mata Hari", a "manipulator" or a liar ".

"I have never met a black widower," he said regarding the case also being known as that of the black widow.

In Boix's opinion, none of these terms and of "moralistic" judgments referring to the accused would be used in the case of a man.

The well-known lawyer has incorporated a woman, the lawyer Alicia Andújar, to the defense team in this case, because she was the one who initially assisted María Jesús from the duty shift.

And addressing the nine members of the jury, he has asked them to abstract from the press and television and apply "the common sense of the people" and "decide according to their criteria" regarding the guilt or innocence of the accused.

Boix shot at different parties.

To the press, of course.

To "those who filter" the press, too.

But also to the Police, who have made reports "full of moral judgments" towards María Jesús.

And about the prosecutor, Vicente Devesa, he warned the jury that the fact of representing the guarantee of compliance with the law, "does not mean that he is correct."

Boix encouraged the jury to assess "only what is proven" in the oral hearing, not assessments such as the one formulated by the prosecutor regarding the fact that Maje convinced Salva to kill her husband.

The lawyer also disqualifies Salvador's "sincere" confession because, in his opinion, "he has changed his mind many times."

"An image is built," he said, about prejudice towards women.

"I have not had much interest in knowing if he had two or three lovers, because it is irrelevant."

But it does contribute to generating the image of "an evil woman who cheated on her husband ... When is it the other way around, is such a show mounted?"

"They are gender clichés," "moral and sexual traps" that are fed, he said, with leaks.

He has filed up to 15 complaints for alleged leaks of information to the press.

If it were for all this, "my client is already doomed."

Boix has also tried to dismantle the economic motive that the Prosecutor's Office defends as one of the motivations for the criminal action against Antonio Navarro.

Collect a pension of just over 1,100 euros;

an insurance policy from the company where Antonio worked for 40,000 euros and life insurance ... or keep the family home and the cash left by the deceased.

"The inheritance looks like the jewels in the crown and there are four guys that Antonio's brother takes care of," he said.

According to Boix, the cliché that she was a village girl (Novelda) who wanted to get out of there is also "false".

This is proven by the fact that she comes from a wealthy family that paid for her studies in Barcelona. "They are not only going to accuse her of being bad, of being a sexual predator and of an economic motive ... God save us from being widowed under suspicion", she has completed.

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