The judges of the First Collegiate Court in Santiago found Spanish citizen Ambiorix Nepomuceno Rodriguez guilty of the death of Puerto Plata lawyer Paola Languasco in 2015. He was sentenced on Monday, 19 June 2023 to 20 years in prison.
The court ordered the convicted person to pay the legal expenses of the process and compensation of RD$10 million to the parents of Paola Languasco, Leopoldo Languasco and Antonia Jiménez.
Judges Juan Carlos Colón, Yiberty Polanco and Claribel Mateo ordered that the sentence be served at the Rafey Hombres Correction and Rehabilitation Center in Santiago.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office proved that the accused violated articles 295 and 304 of the Dominican Penal Code, which typifies the association of evildoers and complicity.
Prosecutor Garcia explained that during the inspection at the crime scene blood stain was found that directly linked Nepomuceno to the crime. The accused tried to clean to hide his crime, but the blood stain served as evidence of his involvement.
The body of the lawyer was found in a sewer of the residential Los Jardines del Norte, in Santiago, next to the apartment of Nepomuceno Rodriguez. The autopsy revealed brutal signs of torture and violence. Languasco had a fractured arm and ribs, in addition to two bullet impacts.
The disappearance and murder of Paola Languasco is a case that shocked the entire population.
The lawyer went missing for 19 days after leaving her residence in Puerto Plata to meet Nepomuceno Rodriguez in Santiago. The body was eventually found in September 2015 with parts of her body in different plastic bags in a sewer.
Ambiorix Nepomuceno Rodríguez left the country for Spain, where he was arrested and brought to justice for trafficking of illicit substances, despite the fact that he was being investigated for the disappearance of the lawyer.
Nepomuceno Rodriguez also escaped from Spanish justice after being granted a permit to visit a sick relative. Days later, Europol agents apprehended him in Germany and sent him back to Spain.
After serving the three-year sentence, Nepomuceno Rodriguez was extradited to the Dominican Republic in November 2019, from which date he was prosecuted in the courts of Santiago.
After hearing the sentence, Nepomuceno Rodriguez described it as unjust. He maintained that “I have never laid a hand on a woman.”
Dominicans Cristino Antonio Mármol (Franklin) and Lariel Alejandro Pichardo Marte (Colita) were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the actual murder of the lawyer. Both were found guilty of criminal association, as well as of acting in complicity with Ambiorix Nepomuceno Rodríguez. They led the family and authorities to where the remains were found and said they were paid by Nepomuceno Rodriguez to commit the crime.
Paola Lenguasco leaves three orphaned children who at the time of the crime were 12, 10 and 7 years old.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
21 June 2023