The family of David de los Santos, who died from blows received from fellow cell inmates in the Naco Police detachment will appeal the sentence that has discharged two policemen and the security of plaza. The family understands these have evaded their responsibilities in the case.
The foster father of the deceased David de los Santos, Juan de los Santos, expressed that he does not understand how when in all the stages of the case of the death of his son, the Public Prosecutor’s Office had established the responsibility of the captain and the private officer of the Police and the members of the security of the plaza where he was arrested, only for these to be acquitted by the judges of the First Collegiate Court of the Criminal Chamber of the National District Court.
Juan de los Santos said the trial established that the captain was who locked up David de los Santos, he said. He told Diario Libre that he understands there has been some kind of compromise.
The mother of the young man who died after being beaten in a cell in the Naco neighborhood on the night of 27 April 2022 by fellow prisoners, expressed her disagreement with the sentence. “Here everyone sold out, here everyone did what they wanted, they did the thing as they wanted,” said Damiana Correa after the judges issued the sentence, as reported in El Dia.
She insisted that “I do not feel satisfied with the decision, because they sentenced three unfortunate people, that with what they are going to pay the compensation that they said they were going to pay, not because I really want money, what I really wanted was justice for my son, because he was not a cat, he was not a dog or a mouse that they killed, he was a person who contributed to society,” expressed the mother.
The judges of the First Collegiate Court of the National District sentenced to 30 years in prison the civilians Santiago Mateo Victoriano, Michael Pérez Ramos and Jean Carlos Martínez Peña, after being found guilty of committing the crimes of torture and barbarism by beating the young David de los Santos Correa in a cell of the detachment of the Naco suburb of the capital, on the night of 27 April 2022, after his arrest in the Agora Mall.
The disappointment of David’s parents comes as a result of the 11 charges brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, of which only five were convicted on Monday, 19 June 2023.
The prosecuting body charged civilians Santiago Mateo Victoriano, Michael Perez Ramos and Jean Carlos Martinez Peña with the crimes of homicide and torture and barbarism, and agents, Captain Domingo Alberto Rodriguez, second lieutenant German Garcia de la Cruz, Corporal Alfonso Decena Hernandez and Private Sari Manuel Gonzalez Garcia.
Ambriori Montero Otaño, Álvaro David Beltrán Pérez, Yubaris Méndez Ferreras and Juan Reyes de la Cruz were accused of irregularly arresting young David de los Santos on the night of 27 April 2022 and handing him over to the police, claiming that he was a “delinquent”.
However, the judges of the First Collegiate Court of the Criminal Chamber of the Court Esmirna Gisselle Méndez Álvarez, Jissel Naranjo Tejada and Yuleika Henríquez Romero only found guilty the three civilians who were imprisoned in the cell where he was beaten and the policemen Germán García de la Cruz and Alfonso Decena Hernández, for their omission before the committing of the crime, as co-perpetrators.
The judges acquitted Captain Domingo Alberto Rodriguez and Private Sari Manuel Gonzalez Garcia, who were the ones who received David de los Santos in the Naco detachment, after his arrest in Agora Mall and kept him in the cell. The court ordered their immediate release because they were not present at the detachment in the early morning of 27 April, the day on which the events occurred.
At the same time, it acquitted the four members of the security of the shopping mall.
“I do not trust Dominican justice, this case teaches us that we cannot trust it,” observed Juan de los Santos
De los Santos’ neighbors, who participated in the demonstrations demanding justice for David last year, showed equal indignation. “How is it possible that those who put David in that cell are free. We are outraged, the main culprit is the captain who took him there and those in the plaza as well,” said neighbor Mary Rivas, as reported in Diario Libre.
David de los Santos had a degree in Physical Education. His neighbors knew him as a studious man. “He was a quiet young man, around here we never saw him in groups, from his work to his home. They must have given him 40 years because that boy was very quiet,” neighbor Apolinar Ruiz told Diario Libre reporters.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Dia
El Dia
21 June 2023