• Justice: They convict the murderer who killed his wife and justified himself by claiming that he helped her commit suicide

Twenty years in prison as the author of a crime of homicide with the aggravating circumstances of kinship and gender and the extenuating confession.

This is the sentence that the second section of the Provincial Court of A Coruña has finally imposed on Ramón Saiz González, a resident of Coruña who, after killing his wife by beheading her with a knife when she was lying on the bed, justified his actions by referring to a supposed euthanasia because she asked him to help her commit suicide.

This version of the defendant, who went so far as to affirm that his wife chose the knife with which she wanted him to kill her, did not convince the popular jury that tried the case and found him guilty of homicide and neither did the court magistrate who, based on that opinion, had to dictate sentence.

The court ruling, to which EL MUNDO has had access, rules out this alleged euthanasia and frames the crime as a sexist homicide.

Judge Salvador Pedro Sanz Crego concludes in his resolution that the accused carried out acts that "unequivocally demonstrate an objective of feeling superior" to his wife, María Judite Martín Alves, and, when setting the prison sentence for the accused , applies the aggravating gender postulated by the accusations.

In his reasoning, the magistrate somewhat amends the popular court, since he understands that it seems that he considered the gender aggravating circumstance not applicable by not considering as proven that the accused had caused the death of María Judite "by belittling her status as a woman, for the mere fact of being "and, nevertheless, in view of the facts that the jury has considered proven," it is possible to appreciate "the concurrence of this circumstance in his conduct.

In this regard, the lawyer Jorge Vila Lozano, hired by the children of the victim to prosecute the prosecution, values ​​that the popular court of A Coruña "fortunately did not pick on that hook and did not leave a sexist crime without conviction", being the "hook "In this case, the strategy for defending the alleged euthanasia.

This lawyer had already argued during the trial against the defendant's attempt to claim executive aid to suicide.

He dismantled his alibi for a "false collective suicide for love", with which he deceived his wife into believing that they suffered from non-existent terminal illnesses and brought to light a signed joint note in which both asked that their ashes be thrown into the sea, mixed with beer, from the hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in the Basque Country while the song Thunder by Imagine dragons sounded.

Based on the sentence now handed down, Jorge Vila interprets that this case is relevant because it lays the foundations of what the limits are for talking about euthanasia in the face of the future law of dignified death that is being processed.

Thus, it warns that people whose suffering has a psychological origin (in this case, María Judite's severe depression and anorexia) are left out and requires informed consent - in full use of their faculties - and a medical diagnosis that indicates that the person who requests to die is facing a serious and incurable (or chronic and disabling) disease.

The proven facts

The sentence considers it proven that María Judite had suffered a serious depressive condition for some time, even commenting on or suggesting to third parties that she suffered from terminal cancer, a circumstance that was not true, and that the accused knew it and, without However, he did not deny it when she told her direct relatives.

In addition, it considers proven the arguments insisted on during the trial by the prosecutor Rosa Serrano and the lawyers of the accusations that his wife, due to that illness, was a person who "was subject to the will of the accused" and that he was not He only did not try to convince her that she was not terminally ill, but even allowed her to tell her sisters-in-law that she had received chemotherapy treatment that had not worked.

As proof of this dependence, on the night of July 11, 2018, a week before the crime, María Judite was treated in the emergency service of the Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña and the doctors advised her to enter Psychiatry, but she was she denied and was discharged because the accused promised to monitor her and personally control her taking her treatment.

The Court's ruling also considers it proven that, despite having promised to take care of his wife, at around 3:00 p.m. on July 18, 2018, at the address they both shared on Calle Estrella de A Coruña, after "making the decision to end the life "of María Judite, taking advantage of the circumstance that she was lying down, she placed a very sharp knife about 30 centimeters long, with a blade of about 18 centimeters, at her throat and made a strong cut in the neck.

The magistrate concludes that the defendant stabbed his victim, causing his death, "regardless of the years that their relationship had lasted", and being aware of the situation of physical weakness (he weighed about 38 kilos) and emotional (due to the strong depression suffered and the medication he was taking) of his wife, which made it easier for him to carry out the action.

The sentence also imposes on the accused the prohibition of residing and going to the municipalities where the three children of the deceased have their domicile, as well as the prohibition of communicating with them by any means, by himself or through third parties, for 10 years more than the prison sentence.

In addition, you must compensate them with 33,732 euros each.

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