The Provincial Court of Madrid begins this Monday the trial that will place Jesús Pradales in the dock as the alleged murderer of Juana Canal, the resident of Ciudad Lineal who disappeared in 2003 and whose crime was solved 19 years later, four months before the case was to be heard. prescribed. The Madrid Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Participating Public Prosecutor’s Office are requesting a sentence of 15 years in prison for the crime of homicide against the victim’s romantic partner.
In November 2023, the president of the Court of Instruction number 21 of Madrid issued an order to commit the 59-year-old man to trial. It noted that “in the early hours of February 22, 2003, Jesús Pradales was in the house he shared with Juana Canal Luque, his romantic partner with whom he had a stable cohabitation relationship, in the apartment located on Calle Boldano, number 2, stairs 2-4º on the left, in Madrid, starting an argument with her.
In this house in the Ciudad Lineal neighborhood, the man accused of homicide “hit her violently in the neck, causing her to fall and die.” When Pradales verified that his partner was dead, he dismembered her body and transferred it to Navarredondilla, a town in Ávila. There, he buried her and her skeletal remains were found on April 18, 2019, by the National Police. However, this discovery was not communicated to the family until June 2022.
In his qualifications, the prosecutor requests 15 years in prison for the crime of homicide with the aggravating circumstance of kinship. The victim’s family requests the same prison sentence as the prosecutor but adds the circumstance aggravating factor linked to sex.
The version of events given by the defense is completely different from that of the prosecution. According to its version, the accused and Juana Canal argued that same night in their apartment on Bolmano Street. The victim “was a dependent consumer of alcohol and pills and was suffering from depressive processes.” After that argument, “and given Pradales’ intention to leave his home, Juana began to attack him and hit him with her hands and fists with the intention of preventing him from leaving the home, even burning him with a cigarette.”
“Fortuitous fatal impact”
Jesús Pradales, according to his defense, tried to protect himself. During this situation, the accused extended his right arm to push and push Juana Canal “without intending to cause her harm, much less death, by said gesture”, Juana losing her stability “due to the impact and her probable involvement due to the consumption of alcohol and pills, hit her head violently, fell to the ground and died instantly as a result of said fortuitous fatal impact.
After realizing that the woman had lost her life due to such a fortuitous and unfortunate act, and with the obvious fear that he would be accused of having voluntarily and intentionally caused her death, given that the police were already on the scene following the initial discussion, “He then hid Juana Canal’s body in the city of Navalacruz, without telling anyone what had really happened.
