The trial for the crime of Samuel Luiz, the young man killed by a brutal group in the early hours of July 3, 2021 in La Coruña, is coming to an end. This Monday’s session was devoted to some simple formal expertise, and all the focus turns to Wednesday: three of the five respondents, The three who are in custody and have the greatest burden of proof behind them will take the stand to try to refute the evidence against them.
They are Diego Montaña, Kaio Amaral and Alejandro Freire, alias “Llumba”. Their lawyers, with the agreement of the president of the court, preferred that their clients testify in the last part of the plenary session, which faces its last sessions this week. That will allow them to respond to the evidence accumulated against them based on the statements of witnesses, experts, police officers and forensic experts who appeared in the long trial which, for more or less a month, takes place in the court of A Coruña.
Diego Montaña was the most notable. It was he who launched the attack on Samuel Luiz on the seaside promenade of La Coruña, mistakenly thinking that the victim and a friend were recording him with their cell phones. He threatened to kill him, shouted homophobic insults at him and attacked him. Several witnesses testified, a road camera recorded it, and even his own lawyer recognizes him. “Diego Montaña never denied this participation,” reaffirmed his lawyer. Luis Manuel Salgado, in statements to the media, this Monday, at the doors of the Provincial Court of La Coruña. And tomorrow his client “will tell the jury, from start to finish, what he saw.”
Given the evidence that he hit the victim, Montaña’s defense, which risks 25 years in prison, will try to play other cards in plenary: this first attack, which was joined by others, did not not been the cause of Samuel Luiz’s death. And another battle to, in case of conviction, cushion it with an extenuating circumstance: that he was completely drunk that evening.
It won’t be easy for Llumba either, who, as Diego Freire, his lawyer, admits, “is one of those who have to explain the most things and who bears the most incriminating burden.” Many people point the finger at him, especially for throwing Samuel Luiz to the ground with the “mataleón” technique, while Diego Montaña hit him. He will approach tomorrow’s session “with a certain relief because he will finally explain himself”.
The third to appear – but not necessarily in that order – will be Kaio Amaral, who He will try, according to his lawyer, José Ramón Sierra, to “convince the court of his innocence”.He is accused of throwing the victim to the ground. Alejandro Míguez and Catherine Silva, the two free defendants, have already testified at the start of the trial. And they also highlighted Montaña and Llumba.
