Both Mario Jose Redondo Llenas, 19, and Juan Manuel Moline Rodriguez,19, the confessed killers of 12-year-old Jose Rafael Llenas Aybar, were questioned separately for several hours last week by Judge Alexis Henriquez Nunez. The original police report contains the confessions of Mr. Redondo Llenas and Mr. Moline Rodriguez, who claimed that they killed the boy after their attempt to kidnap him and ask for a ransom of RD$10 million failed. The murder was carried out, according to the two, in order to keep the boy from telling authorities about the kidnapping scheme. Judge Henriquez Nuñez has continued to question the two in order to test the consistency of that story, as it has been put into great doubt by the news media. Their claim that they killed the boy and then put the body into the trunk of Mr. Moline Rodriguez’s car has been queried, as very little blood was found and the confessed killers were not seen with blood on their clothes at the time they claim to have returned to Santo Domingo after dumping the body in Río Lebrón in the Kilometro 24 area of the Autopista Duarte. Some have speculated that since the two were held in the same cell in Najayo prison for approximately three weeks after being detained on 4 May, they have been able to coordinate their stories. They have now been separated.
The fathers of Mr. Redondo Llenas and of the slain boy have also been questioned by Judge Henriquez Nuñez, and on 7 June, Mr. Moline Rodriguez’s girlfriend Kimberly Caldas Giraldes was also to have been interviewed. Nothing ascertained in this week’s questioning has been revealed to the news media.
In related news, the new Attorney General of the National District, Dr. Julio Cesar Cantanos Guzman has told the news media that he is willing to go through all the diplomatic channels to require the return to the Dominican Republic of Martin Luis Palma Meccia, the son of Argentinean ambassador Teresa Meccia de Palma, in order to investigate his role in the murder of Jose Rafael and in at least one other kidnapping plan. Mr. Palma Meccia, who left the D.R. one day before the murder and has been in Buenos Aires ever since, has been implicated in a scheme to kidnap a young woman in Santo Domingo that was never actually carried out.
The reason for connecting Mr. Palma Meccia, who is reported to be a close friend of Mr. Redondo Llenas, to the murder of Jose Rafael is still unclear. Ambassador Meccia de Palma has met with the Foreign Minister Caonabo Javier Castillo and with President Joaquin Balaguer in the last two weeks, but nothing discussed at those meetings has been revealed to the news media. Mrs. Meccia de Palma also traveled to Buenos Aires last week to meet with the Argentinean Foreign Minister, and there is speculation that Argentinean President Carlos Saul Menem will lift diplomatic immunity and allow Mr. Palma Meccia to be returned to the D.R. for questioning, and possibly to face criminal charges. Mr. Palma Meccia’s father, Luis Palma, has promised the news media that he will hold a press conference at his home on Tuesday, 11 June to explain in detail his son’s relationship with Mr. Redondo Llenas and any possible connection with the crimes in question.