A dispute over a 900€ debt for the installation of two air conditioning units ended in a fatal assault in Alicante in May 2023. More than three years after the incident, the Provincial Court sentenced the man who beat and killed a 51-year-old worker to seven years in prison during a confrontation near Plaza de Argel. Two of his sons were also sentenced to one year in prison for injuring another worker who had gone with the deceased to collect the outstanding payment. Before the trial, the defendants paid 70,000€ in compensation to the victims’ families.
The prosecution initially sought prison sentences of 20 and 8 years for each of the three defendants for the crimes of murder with premeditation and attempted murder. However, the Public Prosecutor and the defence attorneys reached a plea agreement before the trial, whereby the charges were changed to homicide and assault and the requested sentences were significantly reduced.
Lawyer José Luis Sánchez Calvo defended the two sons in the case. Each was sentenced to one year in prison for assault—a reduction from the 28 years initially sought for each of them—and their sentences were suspended for two years, provided they do not reoffend. The father, represented by lawyer Ricardo Martínez, accepted full responsibility for the death and will serve a seven-year sentence, 21 years less than the initial indictment sought by the prosecution.
According to the facts established in the judgement, the case originated with a payment for work performed by the victims of the assault. The ruling states that in April 2023, the now-convicted father commissioned the installation of two air conditioning units in a home in Alicante. On 26th May, two workers went to the property and carried out the installation. They subsequently contacted the client to collect payment for the service.
Dispute over payment for work
The problem arose when the customer refused to pay. One of the installers warned him that if he did not pay for the work, he would remove the appliances. The court ruling states that, during this dispute, the now-convicted man even told him that if he came to his home, he would kill him.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., the two workers went to the vicinity of the house, near Plaza de Argel. There they encountered the client and his two children, and a heated argument ensued.
It was then that the main defendant lunged at one of the workers, a 51-year-old man, and struck him several times. The court ruling establishes that the convicted man acted with the intention of killing him and delivered several powerful blows that caused the victim to fall to the ground. The man suffered severe head trauma and died hours later at the Alicante General Hospital.
The injuries were particularly severe. The victim suffered, among other injuries, a skull fracture, a subdural hematoma, a cerebral contusion, and intracranial hypertension secondary to the trauma. He died at 10:15 a.m. the following day in the hospital.
While the fatal attack was taking place, the convicted man’s two sons attacked the other installer. According to the established facts, they both began to beat him, and the worker finally managed to break free and take refuge in a nearby real estate agency, from where the police were notified.
Stitches
The man suffered a wound to his right eyebrow that required three stitches and left a two-centimetre scar. The defendants paid 1,000€ in compensation for these injuries before the trial.
Furthermore, before the oral jury trial could take place, which also did not occur due to the plea agreement, the defendants paid 69,000 euro into the court account for the mother and two brothers of the deceased as full compensation for the damage caused by his death, an amount accepted under the terms requested by the private prosecution.
That payment was decisive in determining the sentence. The court applied a highly qualified mitigating circumstance of reparation of damages to the perpetrator of the homicide, while recognising the same circumstance as a simple mitigating circumstance for his two children.
The perpetrator was sentenced to seven years in prison for homicide, in addition to being barred from holding public office for the duration of his sentence. He will also be prohibited from approaching within 500 metres of the victim’s mother and siblings or communicating with them for ten years.
The two sons have been sentenced as perpetrators of an assault to one year in prison each and to stay away from the assaulted worker for two years, during which time they will also be unable to communicate with him.
However, those two prison sentences have been suspended for two years, on the condition that none of the convicted individuals reoffend during that period.
The case was supposed to be tried by a jury because it involved homicide, but ultimately a jury trial was not necessary. The prosecution, the private prosecution, the defence, and the defendants reached a plea agreement regarding the facts, their legal classification, and the sentences. The main defendant admitted to the homicide, and the other two admitted to the charge of assault. The presiding judge accepted the agreement and handed down the sentence. The parties also announced that they would not appeal, so the ruling is now final.
