Murderer who shocked Uruguay sentenced to 26 years in jail

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The perpetrator of a murder that shocked Uruguay in 2019 was sentenced on Friday to 26 years in prison, local media reported Monday, March 9th. The murderer was found guilty of the crime of “highly aggravated homicide” due to the fact that the crime was designed to rob the victim.

The incident dates back to May 2019 and occurred in Ocean Park, a seaside resort in the department of Maldonado, between Piriapolis and Punta del Este, according to Uruguayan newspaper El País.

On May 21st, 2019, the victim, a retired teacher, was visited by another man, with whom he had a romantic relationship and planned to spend a few days in the seaside resort. The two men traveled to Punta del Este the next day and everything seemed to proceed smoothly until, in the early morning of May 23rd, the murderer attacked the pensioner, asphyxiated him and then burned his body.

According to the court sentence, the murderer then robbed the pensioner of a credit card, his documents, a TV, a stereo system and his car. He left the victim dead inside his own house and fled. Over the next two days he used the man’s credit card to withdraw 90,000 Uruguayan pesos (about US$2,000) and went to visit “his girlfriend.”

According to the court ruling, the robbery was the motive for the murder. The murderer needed the money for, “at least his daughter’s 15th birthday.” The motive, according to the ruling, was “directly linked to the appropriation of other people’s property, particularly money, the car and electronic equipment.”

The perpetrator was arrested on May 26th, after boarding a bus to travel to the city of Minas. A conversation with his girlfriend was found on his cell phone. “I don’t think about it… and it’s done; if I think about it, it messes with my head,” he confessed.

The same day, a friend of the pensioner who had reported him missing found him dead in his house. He was a “good, caring and noble” man, the woman recalled.

Source: Infobae