The Second Collegiate Tribunal of San Francisco de Macorís sentenced 21-year old Marlon Martínez to 30 years in jail and his mother Marlin to five years in jail for the death of 16-year old Emely Peguero in August 2017. Judges Maria de los Ángeles Concepción, Víctor Inoa and Carminia Caminero ruled that Marlon was guilty of voluntary homicide, act of barbarism and child abduction. He was ordered to serve his sentence at the Fortaleza Juana Núñez in Salcedo. Peguero was pregnant of the child of Marlon Martínez.
The judges ruled that his mother, Marlin Martínez was guilty of child abduction and of hiding the corpse. The judges said the prosecution did not present evidence of the complicity of Marlin in the murder only of her actions after the event.
The Marlon and Marlin Martinez were ordered to pay the family compensation for RD$10 million each.
The judges argued the prosecutors did not demonstrate that Marlin had acted in complicity prior to the murder, only that she had acted after her son informed her of the murder. Marlin Martinez’s defense highlighted that she was in Santo Domingo on the day of the murder. At the time of the murder, Marlin Martinez was deputy head of the Dominican Passport Agency.
After the ruling was known, there were protests in San Francisco de Macorís. Many rejected the light sentence Marlin Martínez had received.
The case now moves to the Court of Appeals of San Francisco. Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez says the Marlin Martinez sentence will be appealed. “We will not appeal on a whim, we will not appeal for sport, we will appeal because we have the right to appeal and because we feel outraged as well as the population that the judges granted the category of concealment of the corpse and not complicity,” he said commenting on the ruling.
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Diario Libre
8 November 2018
