The trial for the death of Samuel Luiz on the A Coruña seafront is coming to an end. THE three defendants who had not yet testified spoke out today in their defense. Alejandro Freire, Kaio Amaral and Diego Montaña declared themselves innocent of the murder of the 24-year-old from La Coruña, as did Katy Silva and Alejandro Míguez, who did so at the start of the trial.
The three They risk sentences ranging from 22 to 27 years in prison, not to mention the more than three years they remained locked up while waiting for the trial to take place. Since then, they have been temporarily detained in different penitentiary centers. Months and months in memory of that night of July 3, 2021 during which they were identified as the main perpetrators of the fatal beating of Samuel Luiz.
Alejandro Freire (Yumba): ““I don’t think Samuel died because of me.”
The first to testify this Wednesday before the Provincial Court of La Coruña was Alejandro Freire, alias Yumba. “I am truly sorry for what I did. Hand on heart, I want to apologize for hurting the family, but I will say one thing: “I don’t think Samuel died because of me.” The person accused of killing Samuel and performing the “mataleón” technique said with tears in his eyes and a broken voice.
Yumba was the second to go to the police station after Samuel’s death and the first to be arrested. They are asking him for 22 years in prison for malicious murder. “I went to the police station to report what happened.” “I was scared to death,” he said, describing the moment he decided to go to the police station. “I always thought we would know what everyone had done.”he adds.
Freire used his right not to answer questions asked by the parties, he only answered those of his lawyer, David Freire. At the time of the attack, he told his lawyer that “he was at the bottom of the stairs” of the promenade when he saw Diego Montaña reprimanding Samuel Luiz: “I heard screams, I looked and I saw them holding each other.”
This is when Yumba enters the fight: “I ran, grabbed the other boy from behind and we fell to the ground”he emphasizes, confirming the thesis according to which he used the “mataleón” technique, as described by the agents responsible for viewing the images. He did not admit to using the key, however, because “he didn’t really know what it was”, as “he had never practiced martial arts”.
Alejandro Freire at trial for the death of Samuel Luiz
He still maintains that he didn’t touch Samuel again during the fight on the boardwalk, only at the beginning. “It was an instinctive reaction to see him hitting Diego. We struggled, but I didn’t try to drown him or strangle him,” he said. In fact, he claims he was only there because he got angry at one of the Senegalese who tried to help the victim.
“At no time did I punch Samuel” He indicates, reiterating that he was there only because he had seen one of the Senegalese “violently” enter the attack and that he had pushed him, thrown him to the ground and hit his head. He admitted that that night he had “taken about 10 or 15 lines of cocaine” and that “he had been drinking since 3:30 p.m.”. Without this, he said, “I would not have launched into the fight or faced the Senegalese.”
“I didn’t expect so many people to get involved, people I didn’t even know or who were with us got involved. Before I realized what was happening around me, I started angry with the Senegalese and I haven’t stopped thinking about the situation.” . If I had known, I would have tried to stop the attack. When I saw him, he was already unconscious on the ground.“, he noted.
Kaio Amaral: “I never touched Samuel, nor took his phone, nor hit him”
Kaio Amaral did not refuse to respond to the parties to the trial, unlike Alejandro Freire, who only responded to his lawyer. Firmly, he answered all the questions asked by the prosecutor, the prosecution and the defense. “I considered them my friends”Kaio responds to the prosecutor’s question about whether he knew the rest of the defendants.
He learned of Samuel’s death the next day, Sunday. “They told me they had taken the covered boy, but I didn’t give it any importance.” In the middle of the statement, he collapses. He cries when asked about his mother: “I remember her face when she came to pick me up from work to tell me that my face was everywhere.”.
Kaio was the first to report to the police station on Monday morning. In his first statement as a witness, he attempted to exonerate himself. A few days later, he was arrested because of his friends who reported him in the fight. Kaio received the longest prison sentence, 27 years, for murder and violent robbery. At no time did he deny having taken Samuel’s cell phone. In fact, he says he found it on the ground, turned it off and put it away, but without using any form of force to do so. “I never touched Samuel, neither to take away his phone nor to hit him,” he said.
His friend Jeremy, the one who testified yesterday and accused Diego Montaña, wanted to buy the phone from him. This wasn’t the first time they made buy and sell trades: “I was selling him things. I gave him the phone and he wanted to buy it from me”. He betrayed himself. “I should have taken him to the police station when I went to testify, but I made a mistake and I didn’t take him,” he announced.
In his account of the events, he says that he became aware of the fight when he saw Diego Montaña and Alejandro Míguez “fighting with a person” in the distance. “I see them on the ground and I go in to separate Alex and Diego,” he says. “Yumba grabbed him by the neck, his back to the ground”he explains, referring to the moment when Freire uses the “mataleón” technique with Samuel. Meanwhile, he places Alejando Míguez on the sidelines of the aggression, as well as Katy Silva: “She was angry with Diego.”
Kaio Amaral breaks down in tears during the trial for the death of Samuel Luiz
At that moment, when he says he’s separating them, “Samuel gets up and walks backwards towards the beach”. “One of the miners came and hit him in the head and I approached him to tell him why he had hit him,” he said. When the crowd moved to the opposite sidewalk, towards Buenos Aires Avenue, that’s when Kaio “finds” Samuel’s phone “laying next to a jacket”: “It was on, I turned it off right away.”
The next day, as the police officers responsible for viewing the images pointed out, Kaio Amaral returned to the scene of the attack to “check if there were cameras”. “Going to the cameras was Javier’s – his mother’s ex – idea, I didn’t even want to go,” he said. “If your photo is circulating on social media, it’s clearly worrying,” he replies to the family’s lawyer when asked if they should go there to verify that what his son said was TRUE.
When his lawyer, José Ramón Sierra, spoke, he asked him questions about his life before the early hours of July 3, 2021. “I worked at Sampaio in Vilarrodís. A colleague took me to the pub where my friends were,” he replies. After drinking a beer, without finishing it, he leaves the pub and sees the attack. “When I look up, I see Katy pulling Diego. I remember seeing Katy making a gesture as if to push Lina away,” he says.
Room in Portugal Square in La Coruña, presented during the trial of Samuel Luiz
Everything else was about visualizing images. Without being clear, Sierra emphasizes that his accused “runs towards the point of the fight”, according to Kaio, “out of worry”: “I was shocked by what was happening.”. In the frame you can see how Kaio kicks “with his left leg”, but the impact is not visible.
Diego Montaña: “If I hadn’t started, nothing would have happened”
Diego Montaña’s story lasted just under five minutes. He is the main suspect in the case of the death of Samuel Luiz, being the first to lunge at the victim when he thought he was recording him with his cell phone. He declared himself innocent to His Honor’s question, but ended by acknowledging: “It started because of me.”
“I remember the bouncer kicked me out of the nightclub, but I don’t even remember why,” he replied to his lawyer. Diego Montaña, like Alejandro Freire, used his right not to answer party questions. “I’m the only one who knows the truth about what happened because I was there”he emphasizes.
Diego Montaña breaks down in tears during the trial for the death of Samuel Luiz
Emotionally, wiping his tears, he recognizes that He “only heard noise, a lot of commotion everywhere”. He had previously drank large quantities of alcohol: “I drank almost a whole bottle of whiskey with Red Bull.” “I left the pub and saw a couple recording and I don’t remember anything else, I don’t have a continuous memory. Suddenly I saw myself hitting Samuel,” he admits .
“I don’t know if it was punches or kicks,” he said. Without saying anything else, he concluded his statement, his voice breaking with tears, and said the following: “I apologize to all of Samuel’s family. If I hadn’t started, nothing would have happened”. It was the day after the events that he learned of the young man’s death.
Final days of trial
Next Monday, November 18, the verdict should be read before the popular jury. This Thursday, the conclusions of the parties and the minutes of the accusations will take place and, on Friday, it will be the turn of the defenses. All this so that next Monday, the members of the jury will sit down to debate the guilt of each of the accused.
