The Supreme Court of Justice of Castile and León (TSJCyL) confirmed the sentence of the León District Court to 20 years’ imprisonment of the nursing assistant SVR for the crime of completed malicious homicide, with the annex of absolute disqualification during the sentence, committed against a non-elderly person from the residence of the Virgen del Camino in León, where he had injected insulin that she did not need.
However, the TSJCyL partially upheld the appeal of the convicted woman’s defense for compensation for moral injury. The Regional Court of Lyon ordered her to compensate each of the victim’s 10 nephews in the amount of €5,000 and €175 for the injuries sustained by those found to be her heirs, but TSJCyL corrected this point to limit compensation to only one of her nephews.
On the other hand, the conviction of the SVR Office as a perpetrator of a simple crime related to injuries, without approval of circumstances modifying criminal liability, requires a two-month fine with a daily fee of six euros, with subsidiary personal liability of one day of deprivation of liberty for every two unpaid fees.
The Public Prosecution also filed an appeal, arguing that the accused should have been sentenced to life imprisonment, which could be reviewed according to the standards of the Supreme Court, which considers treason of incapacity to be consistent with the first circumstance of Article 140.1 of the Penal Code. TSJCyL rejected the said appeal.
In view of this ruling, it is possible to file an appeal for violation of law and breach of form before the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.
The events referred to in this ruling occurred on August 17, 2022, when the accused gave the victim an insulin injection that she did not need at the Virgen del Camino residence in the capital, Leon, after which the non-elderly woman fell into a diabetic coma and died days later.
On May 13, the popular jury declared the defendant guilty of intentionally causing the resident’s death by a majority of eight to one, unanimously convicting her of causing injuries consisting of an angular abrasion of the right temporal region and a slight bruise of the left upper eyelid, from which she recovered with the first medical assistance and without the need for surgical medical treatment in five days.
Facts
According to the ruling, there are proven facts that on August 17, 2022, the nursing assistant was responsible, among other employees, for the 98-year-old resident, who was suffering from advanced dementia with dependence on basic care and daily activities, and whom she took to her room after dinner to put her to bed.
At approximately 7:45 p.m., when the accused was helping the victim put her into bed and clean her up, she attacked her by hitting her head several times with her hand and shaking her, to which the resident shouted, “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me.”
Upon hearing this, another assistant from the dormitory came into the room, and the old woman said to him: “He hit me on the head.” The caregiver and the residence director went to the center when they were notified of the events, in addition to a team from the National Police who requested an ambulance to treat the elderly woman.
Injuries
As a result of this attack, the citizen sustained injuries consisting of an angular abrasion in the right temporal region and a minor bruise in the left upper eyelid, from which she recovered with first medical assistance and without the need for surgical medical treatment within five days.
It is also considered an established fact that around 8:15 p.m. On August 17, the residence director asked the accused to change his clothes and return to his home until what happened was clarified. Moments later, between 8:30 p.m. At 9:00 p.m., as she was preparing to leave, the aide entered the nursing station and took from the care cart an insulin glargine “pen,” a long-acting synthetic insulin, for another resident of the center, who was the only one of all the residential users who needed insulin and who wrote her name on his “pen.”
This insulin pen, when unlocked, was placed in the treatment cart and this was in the nursing room and all health and cleaning staff had permission to take the key, hidden from the residents. The accused went to the victim’s room and injected the insulin contents through four holes in the inner surface of the left thigh with the intention of causing her death, while the elderly woman was lying down.
Insulin poisoning
Then, at approximately 9:00 a.m. on the 18th, other assistants went to get the resident out of bed and found that she was unresponsive to stimuli, with low saturation and persistent apnea, so she was taken by 112 to the Lyon Hospital Emergency Service, where she fell into a coma as a result of insulin poisoning that caused metabolic encephalopathy, even though she was not diabetic and had never needed one. Insulin.
The elderly woman remained in hospital until September 4, 2022, when she died as a result of acute metabolic encephalopathy of a hypoglycemic nature resulting from insulin poisoning intentionally caused by the defendant. Given the victim’s particularly vulnerable condition, she had no possibility to defend herself or offer even minimal effective resistance and the accused was aware that she had no possibility to defend herself.
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