Popular jury finds two Buenos Aires police officers guilty of murdering young musician

Rodrigo Canstatt (26) y Sergio Montenegro (34), the two Buenos Aires police officers charged with the murder of the musician Diego Cagliero during a persecution in May 2019 in Martín Coronado, party Tres de Febrero, they were guilty by a popular jury.

The jury’s verdict was announced late this Wednesday, February 15, at Court No. 1 in San Martín, after a four hour deliberation and nine hearings of a debate that had very intense moments.

Judicial sources close to the case detailed GlobeLiveMedia that Canstatt was convicted of the crime of “intentional homicide” for negligence, recklessness and incompetenceContrary to what was requested by the public prosecutor’s office and the persons concerned, including the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) —complainant of Emmanuel Albelo and Alfonso Roldán, two of the young people who were traveling in the Fiat Ducato with Cagliero—, seeking manslaughter with a life sentence.

Although the maximum sentence for manslaughter is 5 years, Canstatt has already served 3 years and nine months and this Thursday at the hearing caesuraJudge Marcelo Machado will not be able to impose the maximum sentence on him because has no criminal recordhypothetical sources of the case.

Regarding Montenegro, which was charged with attempted aggravated homicide as a policeman, the popular and sovereign jury considered that the crime is a attempted homicide but for excess of service. As for the penalty, it is similar to culpable homicide but in a degree of attempt, which is reduced according to the criminal scale. The magistrate must then also define the sentence for the second defendant. Both sentences were handed down with 10 votes by a jury of 12.

On the final day, after hearing the final decision, the jurors heard closing arguments. In his presentation, the trial prosecutor, Maria Fernanda Billonecalled for the police officers to be convicted as co-perpetrators of the crime of “aggravated homicide for abuse of office”, which carries a life sentence.

According to the complaint of the family, represented by the lawyer Fernando Sicily and composed of CELS, said: “The bullet that killed Diego Cagliero came from Canstatt’s gun. The bullet that seriously injured Mauro Tedesco came from the Montenegrin weapon.

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During this time, the tusks They considered it a case ofself defenseand, alternatively, they demanded that juries rule on an “excess of self-defense” or a “culpable homicide”. They also suggested that the fact be framed as a “invincible ban bugi.e. both knew what they were doing but mistakenly believed it would be allowed, so they would be excluded from guilt.

The case

It all goes back to Sunday, May 19, 2019 in the city of Martín Coronado, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Tres de Febrero. It was noon and Cagliero, accompanied by his friends —Ángel, Damián, Rodrigo, Jonathan, Emmanuel, Mauro and Alfonso— they came back together from the wake of a mutual friend. To make this difficult moment more pleasant, they decide to have a barbecue: they raise funds and go to a local supermarket. Once in the store, some of them improperly took products, hid them in their clothes and left without paying.

After being discovered by local employees, the group of friends returned several things, but one of them managed to take products. This provoked the indignation of the workers, who went to seek the police to recover the goods. Along the way, they met a patrolman and reported what had happened, giving them a sign that the group traveled in a van-type truck, a Fiat Ducato. From that moment, a persecution which ended with the worst result.

According to CELS monitoring of the trial hearings, the Buenos Aires police officers traveling in the patrol car radioed to request assistance from other units. The police deployment ended at the corner of Avenida Márquez and Campo de Mayo, on Martín Coronado, a block and a half from the 5th police station in Euprasio Álvarez, where six patrolmen locked up the truck waiting for the light to turn green.

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Frightened and in disbelief by what was happening, Ángel, one of Diego Cagliero’s friends who was driving the Fiat Ducato, managed to swerve and move forward a few meters but at very low speed. The troops’ response was a filming which left the driver no choice but to stop.

Two of the shots hit Mauro Tedesco, who was already screaming in pain, and Cagliero, who was already convulsing. At that moment, the occupants of the vehicle understood that the knocks they heard on the sides of the truck it was gun shots.

The police claimed to have heard gunshots and repelled them with gunfire, one of which hit Cagliero in the chest.

However, during the trial, experts from the Argentine National Gendarmerie (GNA) found no evidence that the soldiers were fired upon from inside the vehicle the victim was traveling in.

The official expert Mauro Gomez Forestaexplained that the characteristic marks printed on the pellet that killed Diego “belong to one of the expert pistols”, and Judge Machado read that on May 19, 2019, it belonged to “officer Rodrigo Canstatt”, reported CELS in a press release. .

The witness Balbina de Jesus CristaldoLieutenant of the GNA, a criminology graduate of the ballistics division of the crime laboratory of this force, confirmed the words of his colleague and determined that the officer from Montenegro had injured Tedesco with a shot in the pubic region.

Gomez Forestaan official expert from the Institute of Forensic Sciences Lomas de Zamora, a specialist in ballistics, also analyzed the weapons “placed” by the police and confirmed that the .32 caliber revolver had its cartridges intact and that the replica compressed air, for example Its operation can in no case leave residues of shot.

He also confirmed that all ballistic evidence analyzed corresponds to the 9 millimeter caliber, compatible with police weapons.

*With information from Telam

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