Investigative Court No. 5 of Valladolid, responsible for the so-called Esther Lopez case, will hold a preliminary hearing this Wednesday, as part of the case being dealt with through jury trial procedures. Its purpose will be to hear from the various parties on whether or not an oral trial is necessary, as well as to consider possible additional measures they may request.
The parties will appear in court, with the obligatory presence of the accused Oscar SM, starting at 10:00 a.m., during the course of which the public and private charges will request the opening of the trial and the defense to dismiss the proceedings due to the lack of evidence and their “full conviction” of the innocence of their sponsor, a position that the investigator will in all probability reject, as the facts will ultimately be the subject of the interview. Trial by jury in Valladolid court, legal sources told Europa Press.
Aside from the commencement of the oral trial which will contain, barring surprise, the order to be issued by the judge and the corresponding referral of the proceedings to the Regional Court, the coach’s decision on a series of evidence requested by the defense and which she has so far denied and which the legal representation of Oscar SM could raise again, remains unknown, such as the combination of images of Civil Guard drones that flew over the area where the body was found and, among other things, the report requested from the General Directorate of Natural Heritage and Forest Policy of the Council for the purposes of determining the conduct of Animals on a dead body During the twenty-one days during which, as the Guardia Civil considers proven, the body of Esther Lopez remained lying in a ditch.
Based on the position already expressed by the investigator, it seems difficult for the defense to be able to incorporate further proceedings, because the judge recognizes that the case “is already complete and has far exceeded the reasonable time for investigation”… “and also avoids continuing unjustified delay of the proceedings.”
The evidence that was admitted, in this case by the Court of Valladolid thanks to the approval of the appeal, is the study conducted by the Laboratory of Mobility, Biomechanics and Health Studies (MOBIOS), linked to the University of Comillas, which casts doubt on the report prepared by the Accident Reconstruction Team (ERAT) of the Civil Guard on the Esther Lopez accident, deeming it “unlikely” that the suspect’s Volkswagen T-Roc was involved in the accident. Arguing that if the collision had not caused serious damage to the car, it would have been the victim’s body that had borne the brunt in the form of numerous fractures, which, however, were not discovered in the autopsy report.
If the judge agrees to open an oral trial, all that remains is to set a trial date, as all parties have already submitted their qualification documents. Therefore, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Valladolid will seek a sentence of eighteen years’ imprisonment for the murder of Oscar SM, the man accused of the death in January 2022 of Esther López de la Rosa, Traspenedo’s neighbour, whose body was not found until February 5, twenty-three days after her disappearance, dumped in a ditch on the road leading to the said municipality of Valladolid. The trial is scheduled to be held at a date yet to be determined through popular jury proceedings in the provincial court.
The position of the Public Prosecution was the last to be known, after the two special defendants in the case, one representing the parents of the deceased and the other acting on behalf of the victim’s sister, submitted their memorandums in which they consider that the facts constitute a murder, among other major crimes, and demand global penalties of 39 and 33 years’ imprisonment, respectively, for the sole defendant, whose legal representation, on the other hand, wants to be dismissed due to the lack of tests.
In its letter, the public accusation carried out personally by the Public Prosecutor, Soledad Martín Nájera so far, classifies the facts as premeditated murder and requests eighteen years’ imprisonment, and the payment of 100 thousand euros to each of the victim’s parents and 80 thousand euros to her sister, as civil liability, as legal sources informed Europa Press.
Like the other two documents of the private prosecution, the Public Prosecutor goes back to the night of January 12, 2022 when Esther Lopez and several friends, including her alleged executioner, toured various hospitality establishments, the last of which was the Castillo de Traspenedo bar, where at a certain moment the deceased and the accused were left alone in a Volkswagen T-Roc owned by the latter.
Esther then stated that she did not want to go to her parents’ house because she had been drinking and taking drugs, and Oscar offered her to sleep at the family home in Traspenedo.
Once there, always in the prosecutor’s opinion, an argument ensued between the two for reasons unknown but which prompted Esther to move away from the place. Then the accused followed her into his car, and hit her at a speed of about 40 kilometers per hour from behind at the level of her buttocks, and the impact was stronger on the left side. He confirms that the attack was premeditated and with intent to kill and that it occurred near Oscar’s home, in the urban area of ”El Romeral” in Traspenedo.
As a result of the accident, the victim suffered numerous injuries that he specified in his temporary rehabilitation document, despite being warned that none of these injuries were fatal, either individually or as a whole.
He let her suffer
Esther was alive after the accident, and had she been treated she would have been alive, asserts the chief prosecutor, who accuses Oscar of having, far from helping her or calling the emergency services, left her in pain until she died. The primary cause of death was multiple trauma associated with hypothermia and consumption of toxic substances (alcohol and cocaine), and the cause of death was multifactorial shock.
When he confirmed his death, Oscar hid the body and his belongings in the trunk of his car and deposited them as quickly as possible in a ditch on the road. VP-2303, PK 0.7/0.8, towards Traspenedo, at the height of the traffic light “Overtaking allowed”.
The body of Esther Lopez was found at that location on February 5, 2022. On January 13, 2022 at approximately 1:00 p.m., the accused proceeded to wash the vehicle, while later, on February 1, 2022 and April 2, he attempted to delete all the data that the systems of the VW T-ROC vehicle, license plate 0612-LSF he was using, could save, which he did not save and conclude with success in its entirety.
For its part, Oscar SM’s defense will, once again, ask for the case to be dropped in relation to its client, and does so “with full conviction of the innocence” of its client, because, after almost four long years of the case, it maintains that there are no reasonable indications that he can be accused of participating in the events of which he is accused.