One year after Fernando’s Crime: The life of the Rugbiers in Jail and the cowardly secret they hide

Maximo Thomsen was the alpha boy of the pack. All were accused under the same classification in the file that seeks to bring to trial the bestial attack that caused the death of Fernando Báez Sosa the early morning of January 18, 2020 in front of the Le Brique disco in Villa Gesell, the crime of homicide aggravated by treachery, aggravated by the participation of one or more persons. But the tests were particularly difficult for him, a former player for Arsenal Náutico de Zárate, like his teammates, later at CASI, a young career athlete. The crime video shows him head-on, with his black shirt open, on the sidewalk of the disco with Fernando as he began to die, beside himself, the livid eyes at the end. A putavica from the disco had thrown him into the street with extreme force minutes before: he applied a Brazilian jiujitsu kill-leao key to reduce him.

“Come on, shit, get up”Thomsen yelled at his victim, witnesses heard, eight to one, without a policeman on the block to defend Fernando. There were blood of the boy from Caballito on his black canvas shoes, seized by the Buenos Aires Police in the subsequent raid on the house where Thomsen and his accused friends lived together. Those slippers were then appraised by the Scopometric Laboratory of the Federal Police: Criminal experts determined that Thomsen’s footmarks were there.

The jail was not kind: the prisoners in the Dolores prison shouted threats and insults at them, threw their surnames into the air as they began their confinement in a sector separated from the rest of the population in one of the most overcrowded prisons in the province.

“What’s up with rugby?”wondered underworld veterans locked there, while In other prisons, such as in Unit 32 of Florencio Varela, other detainees joked in a video about fighting them with knives and stealing their shoes.

The jail changed for them, in part: the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service faced a situation of high volatility. There were rumors of VIP privileges, tumbero wellness improper. Their families visited them outside of regular visiting hours, they went to the showers under surveillance, comforted by a pastor and a psychologist. Another veteran of three convictions, crammed into a cell, reasoned: “You don’t hit these kids, you have shit on their legs so they can bring you money, merchandise, if the families are chetas. What’s the use of stabbing them? Above are eight. A whole henhouse of hens that lay the golden eggs ”.

In a statement in the case investigated by the prosecutor Verónica Zamboni, Thomsen assured: “I want to clarify that we are not in jail as the media say, that they say we have air conditioning, that we have fans, that we are VIP prisoners, when in fact we are all night listening to what other prisoners tell us, that they yell at us that they have price our heads, that Mocking will defend them, that they want to rape us. They yell everything out the window at us ”.

They were sent to Mayor’s Office N ° 3 of Melchor Romero after the judge David Mancinelli and the Chamber of Dolores will confirm his preventive detention, a prison in the periphery of La Plata, occupied by pungas and snatchers of cell phones, transas and motorbike boys from the area, of violent people who beat their women. There, too, the eight rugby players heard the screams at the beginning, separated from the rest of the population, but no prisoner can scream forever.

Thomsen, for now, is one more.

Today, a year after the crime, while awaiting the arrival of the trial against him, sources who know closely the confinement of Thomsen, of Ciro Pertossi, of Luciano Pertossi, of Lucas Pertossi, of Enzo Comelli, of Matías Benicelli, of Blas cinalli and of Ayrton viollaz They assure that there is no leader among them, and that, still separated from the rest of the inmates of the jail, they carry out their confinement without internal conflicts in the group, with the penitentiaries who monitor them and with other detainees. “They even have a good relationship with some prisoners”, assures an officer.

Hosted in dungeons for two –something unusual given the overcrowding of Buenos Aires prisons – they are visited by one family member at a time given the rules because of the pandemic after months without seeing anyone: they receive the same food as the other detainees, while their relatives, who must drive 150 kilometers from Zárate to see themThey bring them books, clothes, hygiene items, grass and cigarettes. Haveexits to the patio without contact with other inmates, and there they can be seen walking, jogging or simply sunbathing. Sometimes they receive spiritual assistance from a pastor. Direct contact with other detainees is avoided.

“They are eager for the trial to begin”, they assure close to them.

Meanwhile, the eight rugby players asked to remain in prison but at home, according to judicial sources. They claimed that they are not convicted, so they are technically innocent, that they have a roost – a home – where they can continue their detention and that they can be controlled by an electronic bracelet. Judge Mancinelli asked for three reports before deciding. One was to determine if their homes are suitable for monitoring the bracelet, and another, a socio-environmental study in their homes. They were both favorable. Stay a psychological expert opinion on each of the accused, which was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, and that will take place between February 2 and 11. When the results are in, the judge will be able to decide if they remain in Dolores jail or grant them arrest at home.

According to Law 24,660, home detention is foreseen for people over 70 years old, pregnant women, mothers of a child under 5 years old, disabled and terminally ill. “Otherwise, there must be exceptional circumstances that convince the judge that there is no danger of flight or obstruction of evidence. From my point of view, it is difficult for them to grant them the domiciliary “, he pointed Diego Escoda, attorney general of Dolores, the jurisdiction that investigated the crime.

At the beginning of the case, Pablo Ventura was arrested in a hunt that reached the door of his house in Zárate. His father almost lost his life following the patrol car to Villa Gesell. He was locked up for four days and nights, then released. A video of a grill that located him in his city at the time of the crime exonerated him. The rugby players knew him well. Ventura claimed to have no problems with them, but other boys in Zárate spoke of cruel taunts behind his back. They found memes with his face when they surveyed the phones of the accused.

One of them betrayed Pablo while he was handcuffed on the ground, the clue that ignited the Bonaerense. To this day, no one knows who it was. The rugby players keep it quiet. The record does not say so to begin with.

He only talks about “inquiries”.

Pablo appears for the first time in the file on page 38 of the first of the more than seven bodies of the investigation, in the middle of the procedural record of the arrest of the rugbiers on the morning of January 18, by a chief commissioner of the Pinamar Department, together with an inspector commissioner, the communal chief of the Police in Villa Gesell and others three high-ranking local officers in communication with UFI No. 8. Matías Franco Benicelli, later accused of being a necessary participant in the crime, was the one who opened the door. They recognized him from the videos of the night at Le Brique bowling, thanks to the tail he wore in his hair.

The transcript that reached the prosecutor on duty included the name of Pablo Ventura. What he did not include was an explanation of how it was obtained, does not specify the name of the rugby player who supposedly marked him. The truth is that there were details, many, even of his movements, with his father’s car track included. Whoever marked Pablo not only gave his name, but accused him of escaping in his father’s car. That same day, alerts to capture José María Ventura’s Peugeot 208 were sent to Road Safety.

For now, sources close to Dr. Jorge Santoro, Ventura’s lawyer, speak of the possibility of filing a claim for damages in the contentious administrative jurisdiction at the end of the judicial fair, seeking compensation. They use an extremely conspicuous term: “Research Malpractice.”

I kept reading:

One year after the crime of Báez Sosa: the plan to kill treacherously and what does Justice need to bring the rugby players to trial

Fernando’s crime: the evil of the patoteros rugby players that struck the heart of Argentina