Man accused of Juana Canal’s murder accuses his victim: “I was scared and I dismembered her”

Jesús Pradales, the confessed murderer of Juana Canal, reaffirmed during the trial that the death of his then partner in February 2003 was accidental because it occurred after he hit her with his arm to prevent her from continuing to hit him. violent episode caused by the alleged alcoholism suffered by the deceased. The event occurred in the victim’s apartment, on Calle Boldano, 2 (Ciudad Lineal), and it was not until October 2022 that it was resolved by the National Police, almost on the verge of prescription. Dressed in black, the accused a. arrived at the Provincial Court of Madrid in a Civil Guard van that dropped him off at the entrance, in full view of the concentrated media. Handcuffed and on foot, he climbed the parking ramp and entered the courthouse, reports Ep. The defendant presented himself in court in a very cowardly manner, as a victim of abuse, describing the deceased as “a very violent person” who was always forgiven. Despite this, he said of her that she was “the woman of his life”. I didn’t know what to do and I dismembered her, put her in two bags and buried her in Ávila. Carlos Hidalgo Jesús, who was Juana Canal’s partner, confesses that he got rid of the body but not that he murdered her. The accumulation of evidence cornered him: he beat Juana, who called the police, and buried her in his own city. The defendant risks a request from the prosecutor for 15 years in prison for the crime of homicide, as her family claims. of the deceased, represented by seasoned lawyer Juan Manuel Medina, who also appreciates an aggravating circumstance of gender. The defense qualifies the crime as reckless homicide, a crime that would have expired after five years. In previous questions, the prosecutor pointed out that during an argument, Jesús hit Juana in the neck until she fell. After killing her, he dismembered her and buried the body. “He did everything possible to hide any type of vestige or evidence that would bring us closer to what happened,” he said. The incriminating accusation against the accused is based on circumstantial and circumstantial evidence since there is, for example, no autopsy to determine the cause of death or certain recordings that captured the murderer at the time of the criminal act. The court will have to determine whether the death of this 38-year-old resident of Ciudad Lineal was accidental or whether there was an intention to kill. his. The skeletal remains were found on April 18, 2019, on a farm in Navarredondilla (Ávila), but the family did not learn of the discovery until October 2022. The lawyer for SOS Desaparecidos stressed that if “this man” were released, he would “kill.” Juana Canal again, because she has already been killed while her disappearance has not been investigated, as it should be, even though she has already been killed in these 19 years. “It’s paradoxical. If it is really concluded that it was a fortuitous event or a reckless homicide that would be prescribed by the sentence it carries, I insist, we would kill Juana Canal again. There would even be compensation. “I think it would be a failure of the rule of law and a failure of victims in general,” he said. Jesús met Juani, as he calls the victim, in September 2002 and two weeks later he went to live with her and lived with her. his two children. “It was love at first sight. “I left everything to go live with her,” he said. According to the defendant, Juani’s problem was alcoholism. On the night of the crime, in February 2003, he explained that he was “more violent” than other times and an argument started for no reason in the room of one of his friends. . children. “He got up and started hitting me and telling me he was going to call the police,” he said. Terrible investigation from 2003. Several officers showed up at the house, around two in the morning, and left when they felt their intervention was not necessary. Juani did not want him to leave the house and the woman continued her attacks. “She went to the bathroom with 600 euros and said she was going to throw it down the toilet. When he left, he started attacking me with his fists and insulting me again. I pushed her away with my arm. It was a push and I heard a thud when he fell near a table. I left and after a while, not hearing him, I came back. It is an image that I will not be able to forget,” he recalled. She was found lying on the ground, without a pulse. He thought about calling an ambulance, but he didn’t have his cell phone. “They’ll think it was me!” There was no one else and I panicked. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. The first thing that came to mind was to remove the body. “I grabbed Juani and took her to the hallway landing but there was a neighbor there,” he admitted. He left her leaning on the railing, but found himself unable to get her out of a fourth floor. “Then the idea of ​​the bathtub came to mind. How could I carry it if it wasn’t like that! It seemed like it wasn’t me. I grabbed a knife but I don’t remember the bathroom or anything. I couldn’t take the whole body. “I was terrified,” he insisted. “Did you dismember the body in the bathtub?” the prosecutor asked him, to which he replied yes. He put the body in suitcases and moved to a place in Ávila, where he dug two holes and threw the remains that same day. began to clear up. He got rid of his suitcases in different containers in Madrid. A few weeks later, he went to the Ventas police station to confess the facts, which he thought was “what God wants”, but he was unable to do so and left. Questioned by lawyer Juan Manuel Medina, he explained that he had cleaned the bathtub. with clean water, remember if you used plastic bags to introduce the dismembered body. In addition, he added that Juana had threatened to stick a knife in his neck and blame him for the attack. Juana Canal, in a photo provided by her family abcDuring the interrogation, he wanted to clarify that Juana was “the wife of his life” and insisted several times that he had never attacked any woman. “I am very sorry and I apologize again to Juana’s family,” he said. In the early hours of February 24, 2003, Jesús filed a false complaint at the National Police Station in Carabanchel, in which he referred to allegations of physical assaults and injuries at the hands of Juana during this argument after which she disappeared. Two days before, one of the woman’s children found a note written by the accused, which indicated that they had argued and that she had fled and had not been able to find her. According to the investigation, the murderer always hid from his relatives and his wife the alleged attacks of which he was the victim and limited to stating that the complaint concerned Juana who allegedly stole some 700 euros from him, which was even equivalent to an amount of 700 euros. to claim his son. Mistreatment of another woman The accused was arrested in April 2006, three years after the crime, for mistreatment of his partner at a gas station in front of her children. On April 18, 2006, he was arrested by the police. National in Getafe for the crime of undermining authority and mistreating his partner by “attacking her behind a gas station, in the presence of the woman’s minor children.”madrid_dia_0703There are also two other arrests made by the Civil Guard, in December 2003 and May 2005, for crimes against road safety and others.

Source