He killed his wife 42 years his junior but was unassailable: they decide if he goes to a mental prison

Ramon Hermes Acuna (now 79) and Maria Dolores Junco (35 at the time of his death) had been in a relationship for a year. He was very possessive of her. He was jealous of her because of her beauty and youth and was very obsessed with knowing what she was doing and who she was with whenever she left the house they both shared in Isidro Casanova, in the district of La Matanza. Not only did he bombard her with WhatsApp messages asking for an explanation, but he also followed her with the car. Dolores was tired of his obsessive behavior and had even considered leaving him.. The arguments did not stop but he always asked her forgiveness, told her that he could not live without her and they reconciled.

However, on September 15, 2020, something different happened. Dolores felt so abused after a heated argument that she he didn’t give in to their excuses, let alone have sex. Hermes Acuña’s reaction was excessive: he murdered her with 11 stab wounds to the neck then attempted suicide.

As a result of what happened, Acuña was tried, accepted his guilt, but on February 22, 2022, the TOC No. 1 of La Matanza, composed of judges Alfredo Drocchi, Matías Rouco and Andrea Schiebeler, declared him unassailable and ordered his release.

However, three months later, Chamber I of the Chamber of Appeal and Guarantee of La Matanza, presided over by Judge Gerardo Lucio Frega, confirmed a request presented by the prosecutor Alfredo Luppino to revoke the dismissal, to render null and not avenue of liberation and a new trial is organized to determine whether he should be admitted to a neuropsychiatric center. This afternoon, the decision will be known.

“Fifteen experts affirmed that Hermes Acuña is beyond reproach during the trial, there is no doubt. What is under discussion It’s because they released him being a femicide and they did not apply the corresponding security measures. He is a person who can continue to kill”, he explained to GlobeLiveMedia Fernando Herrera, the victim’s family attorney. The discussion on the penitentiary incarceration of the accused is not new, on the other hand, with points such as the PRISMA center of the prison of Ezeiza, where, for example, Christian “Pity” Álvarez was detained.

In this new process, which began last Tuesday and was covered by the agency telamHermes Acuña was accused of relationship aggravated homicide existing with the victim and for having been perpetrated against a woman by a man, mediation of gender violence.

At the first hearingsaid one of the victim’s sisters, daughter and grandson of Hermès Acuña. Also, various experts spoke and agreed that the man is indisputable and dangerous to himself or others. Accordingly, the trial prosecutor, Guillermo Bordenave, asked during his closing argument that the man is locked up in a neuropsychiatric hospital of the penitentiary service of Buenos Aires for a period of 45 years.

“I asked for the same sentence, but taking into account the fact that the man is elderly and undergoing outpatient treatmentI asked that he be admitted to a day hospital but under judicial supervision, ”noted the lawyer for the plaintiffs.

And he added: “Today, Herrera has a completely normal life. He continues to live in the house where he killed Dolores and goes to a psychiatristthat he pays himself, once a month of his own free will”.

For its part, the defense requested that no security measures be applied and that the man remains under house arrest with monthly psychological assistance; and, secondarily, receive treatment in a day hospital of the Unión Obrera Metalúrgica (UOM)social work with which he is affiliated.

After the allegations, the accused gave his last words, in which he admitted to having committed the act and He apologized to the Juncos family. He assured that he did not want to kill her and that he does not know why he did it.

Despite the fact that Dolores and her femicide had been living together for less than a year and she had little contact with her family, Hermes Acuña’s children and grandchildren loved her very much and called her “Maru”.

They were 42 years apart and according to the expertise they had a very special relationship. “One of the psychiatrists, who was the toughest and said that Acuña had to stay hospitalized in a neuropsychiatric hospital, He noted that this was the typical case of an older man who sought sexual gratification from a younger woman in exchange for financial support for his children.”. For Herrera, “it led Dolores to a clear submission and he began to feel her as his property”.

“The day of the event they were already talking about the day before and as she did not want to satisfy her sexual instincts, he stabbed her to death. I wanted to have sex all the time and she didn’t. It was driving her crazy. And this was even recognized by Hermes Acuña’s own relatives during the trial”, recalled the lawyer.

Dolores’ cries, as she bled to death, were heard by the housekeeper who was working in the Hermes Acuña house at the time of the incident. The woman, when he came to help her in the bedroom, he found the victim on the bed, with wounds to the throat and with Acuña lying on the ground, with self-inflicted wounds.

When troops from the fourth police station in San Alberto Oeste arrived at the home, they discovered that Dolores had died. The medical examiners then counted eleven stab wounds. While Hermes Acuña was urgently transferred to the Parish Hospital, where he recovered from his injuries and was then housed in the Melchor Romero penitentiary unit -reserved for inmates with psychiatric disorders- until his release on February 22 last year.

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