Judge Alexis Henriquez Nuñez continued his interviews in connection with the murder of 12-year-old Jose Rafael Llenas Aybar. The Listin Diario newspaper reports that the judge met with Alberto Barbera, the owner of “El Penthouse”, an alleged homosexual bar and discotheque. Luis Palma, the husband of the former Argentine ambassador to the D.R., who is suspected of being involved in the case, was apparently a friend of Mr. Barbera and frequented his establishment before leaving the country together with his wife in August.
In addition to the interview with Mr. Barbera, his apartment in Santo Domingo was searched on 12 October. Pornographic video tapes and magazines were reported to have been found.
Judge Henriquez Nuñez has said that he is interested in interviewing ex-police officer Michel Guerrero, who was assigned to the Palma-Meccia house before the murder on 3 May, as well as the director of Puerto Plata’s El Vocero newspaper, Gabriel de Jesus, and the head of the National Police in that city, Eufemio Torres Mejia.
With the last series of interviews conducted by Judge Henriquez Nuñez, it is becoming more evident that the two confessed killers, Mario Jose Redondo Llenas and Juan Manuel Moline Rodriguez, both 19, may not have acted alone as they claimed upon being arrested on 4 May.
The fact that the boy’s body was dumped close to property owned by the Palma-Meccia family, in addition to the friendship between Mr. Redondo Llenas and the former ambassador’s son, Martin Luis Palma Meccia, whose passport exit stamp bore a false date before the murder, when he actually left the country two days after, seems to point to some sort of involvement by the ambassador’s son and husband.
The story told by the confessed killers that they had kidnapped the boy for a RD$10,000,000 has lost credibility, and the public consensus is that they are covering others involved in the case.