After 18 hearings behind closed doors, The trial for the murder of Lucio Dupuy ended and the verdict will be known on February 2 of the judges. During closing arguments, both the boy’s mother, Magdalena Esposito Valentias your partner, abigail paezthey had the chance to say their last words on the case.
“Many will find it wrong that I’m not crying, but I psyched myself up to be as strong as possible so I could speak clearly. I mourn Lucio in privateIt seems more human to me than doing it in front of people who don’t know me, nor did they know Lucio,” Esposito said.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office accused Magdalena Espósito Valenti, the child’s mother, and her partner Abigail Páez, for Qualified homicide and seriously insulting sexual abuse of 5-year-old Lucio Dupuy.
Lucio Dupuy case: the Prosecutor’s Office requested life imprisonment for the mother and her partner
Páez, in turn, said that “I did not declare the robbery to the police because it was not true, it was a moment of despair. I told that to a neighbor I didn’t know. I did not come here to lie, but to give my version and to tell the truth of the facts; and though I did not swear, I swear now on all my beliefs that what I said is the truth.”
“Everything they can say about me is horrible, that’s why I apologize to the people who have felt touched by the issue and by this whole situation, and who cry and miss him as it happens to me and his mother,” he said. . And I also want to apologize to my family and my mom because I failed her, because she didn’t teach me these things. I don’t really know what happened, I have many gaps in my head, and if I didn’t tell details, it’s because I’m very traumatized.. I know that he (through Lucio) forgave me. Hopefully I can forgive myself, ”he concluded.
In her closing argument, the prosecutor Verónica Ferrero –who was accompanied by the attorney general Máximo Paulucci and by her partner Mónica Rivero– took it as proven that that day the defendants “physically assaulted, jointly”, Lucio between 5:30 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. causing multiple injuries; and he added that those injuries caused his death after a period of agony.
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Ferrero, exceeded in the autopsy, spoke of continuous physical abuse – he alluded to old data – and that the sexual suspects were also proven repeatedly.
For this reason, he accused Espósito Valenti of seriously outrageous sexual abuse due to the circumstances in which it was carried out with carnal access via anal with an object aggravated by having been committed by the ascendant (parent), with the help of two people and taking advantage of living with the victim. under 18 years of age; everything as a continued crime; in a real contest with homicide qualified for being the ascendant, for cruelty and treachery.
Páez was accused of seriously outrageous sexual abuse due to the circumstances of its realization and with carnal access via anal with an object; aggravated by having been committed by the guard, with the help of two people and taking advantage of living with the victim under 18 years of age; everything as a continued crime; in real contest with homicide qualified by cruelty and treachery.
According to judicial sources, with these suspicions The defendants would be sentenced to life imprisonment.
For his part, the attorney for the private complaint, José Mario Aguerrido – who represents Lucio’s father, Christian Dupuy – adhered to these legal qualifications and added the aggravating circumstance of gender hate for homicide. He maintained that this was the motivation for killing Lucio and that this was proven from the level of “continuous violence” that existed towards the child.
The plaintiff endorsed the prosecution’s theory that Espósito Valenti and Páez were in the apartment on Allan Kardec street when Lucio was beaten. He said that “they both attacked him or one attacked her and the other did nothing to prevent it.”
The claim of Lucio Dupuy’s grandfather: “No human rights group or the State asked us how we are doing”
The request of the defenses
Blanco Gómez, Páez’s official defender, affirmed that there was not an aggravated homicide but a preterintentional homicide, that is to say that there was no intent (intentionality) and that The defendant – who admitted to having hit Lucio – did not seek the result of death. That is why she listed seven behaviors that the defendant carried out to prevent the death of the child. Among them they mentioned the practice of CPR to revive him, his transfer to the health post in the Atuel neighborhood, the search for help from the police and the arrival at the Evita hospital. “These are behaviors that must be assessed because he did not want to kill,” he told judge Alejandra Ongaro and judges Daniel Sáez Zamora and Andrés Olié. She in turn questioned the autopsy findings.
The defense asserted that “none of the three aggravating factors” raised by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the excess homicide, adding that in the worst scenario there could have been a simple homicide with eventual intent. Regarding the accusation of sexual abuse asked for the acquittal of Páez for the benefit of the doubt. And he asserted that the media coverage of the case caused a “state of defenselessness” in the accused.
The official defender Pablo De Biasi requested the acquittal of Espósito Valenti for both crimes. He assured that “at the scene there was one person and not two” and ruled out co-authorship of the homicide. “The only witness was Abigail,” she said. He also ruled out any responsibility of the mother for omission. In a subsidiary manner, she argued that, if she were found guilty, she could only be charged with malpractice.
On the other hand, he stated that the prosecution and the complaint implemented “many cuts” to the facts to fit them into their theories and added that during the process the responsibility of the father in the care of Lucio was diluted.
Lucio Dupuy case: the mother accused of the murder testified and said that “when I left him at home he was alive”
The last allegation was that of the adviser for Girls, Boys and Adolescents, Graciela Massara. She responded to objections from the defenses on the scope of the agency’s intervention in this type of process; she reaffirmed that there was child abuse by action and omission; and reiterated that the defendants were violent with Lucio. Her intervention revolved around legislation that protects the rights and best interests of the child. Massara adhered to the prosecutor’s accusation.
judgment of caesura
The defenses of the defendants request the division of the debate, which is frequently called a trial of cesura or trial cessation. This is possible “when the maximum penalty for the punishable acts charged, according to the legal classification of the accusation and the opening order, exceeds six years in prison”, in accordance with the provisions of article 343 of the Criminal Procedure Code of La pampas.
Therefore, when the sentence is known, the Court will decide only if Espósito Valenti and Páez are guilty or innocent, but will not set a sentence. For this, there will be a new hearing within a period not exceeding 15 days from the decision being known.
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