2023-09-23 06:32:20
The Spanish chef Daniel Sancho, accused of murder and dismemberment of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta on the island of Koh Phangan, only seems to have one option: recognize the charges against him, if he wants to get rid of capital punishment. At least that is what the number 2 of the Thai police, Surachate Hakparn – better known as Big Joke – said in the interview he gave to Telecinco on September 13.
The general left no room for doubt: “I say and warn: if Daniel goes to court and denies the charges, he will face the death penalty. But if he pleads guilty, the sentence will be life imprisonment. Your future depends on him“. Some statements that sounded more like a threat than a warning and that seem to indicate that the Spaniard’s sentence is decided before the trial takes place.
Thailand just wants to close the case and get the country talked about again as the excellent tourist destination that it is. But it is worth asking How strong is the evidence? that they have against him. Hence, we analyze this point with an expert in the matter, in the absence of the Thai police delivering the final report on the investigation investigations to the Prosecutor’s Office. In any case little seems to have been reserved for the Public Ministry, given the constant leaks and statements made by different police commanders.
For his part, Daniel could be thinking about changing your defense strategy. That makes us think about his recent decision to change Thai lawyers. Although the matter is complicated considering that the Penal Code of the Asian country does not include mitigating circumstances, only conditions. And, in order to reduce the sentence, he would have to deactivate the accusation of premeditationwhich is incompatible with the crime of homicide (punishable by between 15 and 20 years in prison).
The cook always has maintained that Edwin died from a blow on the head with the bathtub, after punching him during a fight. However, the autopsy concluded that the Colombian surgeon had died with his throat slit. “First they fought, according to the evidence at the (crime) scene. Daniel punched him, then the doctor fell and hit the sink. But he did not die at that moment, but when he started cutting her neck“Big Joke detailed.
Lawyer Teresa Bueyes, citing sources close to Rodolfo Sancho’s son, revealed that the young man had stayed “in shock” upon hearing the news because he was convinced that the Colombian had died from the blow and – therefore – was already dead when he began to dismember his body. Let’s see therefore what the data tells us on this and other matters with the help of Ricardo Ortegaforensic expert specializing in human identification.
Fundamentally, the Thai police base their accusation on: security camera recordings (who recorded Daniel’s movements until his arrest), analysis of the remains of Edwin’s body that has been found (among which the torso is not found) and Daniel Sancho’s own confession (which may or may not be maintained at trial). The images of him buying utensils and knives in a supermarket support the accusation of premeditation and what the cook declares in court remains to be seen, but is the analysis of the victim’s remains conclusive?
Did he do the dismemberment alone?
The first thing that was questioned about the dismemberment of Edwin Arrieta is whether it was possible that Daniel Sancho had done it (alone) in three hours, as he said in his confession to the Koh Phangan police after his arrest – on August 5 -. So much so that, in order not to leave any loose ends, Big Joke himself said on September 13 that the young man would have lied and that “he did it all night”.
In any case, the expert consulted by LD consider that three hours were enough to dismember a corpse for a person who has the necessary knowledge -and tools-. “In three hours there was plenty of time for someone who He is a cook and is used to to handle the knife to dismember animals,” says Ricardo Ortega. “Many animals are more complex than the human being,” he adds.
Mention, for example, quadrupeds. “We have our arms completely open. We can make a 360-degree movement, because we have no limiters. However, a horse or a sheep has a series of bone spicules, which what they do is protect the shoulder joint to that it does not open to the sides, which makes the process difficult,” he explains.
“You have to know where the bones are, but also the muscles and tendons,” he argues. “For a person who is used to this, it is relatively easier to dismember a human. And now that they say that he was there all night, all the more reason,” he explains. That doesn’t mean that Sancho could have received help from a third person, but – in that case – he would be surprised, given that They haven’t found anyone else’s DNA. In the crime scene.
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Is it important that the torso appears?
Big Joke has said on several occasions that he does not need the torso to appear to close the case, because he has enough evidence for the Spanish cook to be convicted. However, Ortega considers that it would be important and that could provide essential information for research.
Among other things, the expert consulted by LD points out that it would shed light on alleged stab wound that Edwin would have received, according to the testimony of the Thai police. It was pointed out as a possible cause of death, based on the slit that presented a t-shirt of the victim.
“They said they had stabbed him in the heart, but what they found was a T-shirt that had a perfect cut and no blood stains“, warns Ortega. “It looks more like the stabbing occurred without a person inside. That is to say, that – for whatever reason – they were arguing and he used it as a threat.”
Did Edwin die with his throat cut?
Regarding death by beheading, as determined by the autopsy, the coroner comments that it is a conclusion that could have been reached if they have a “complete neck, along with the skull”. “It depends on how high the person who dismembered it cut it,” he says. “If you have a cut on your neck, you can see it perfectly depending on the type of cut.”
“By cutting the throat we understand the passage of a sharp instrument, generally a weapon – although it could also be a sharp tool, such as a sickle or a machete – which is slid down the neck of a person or an animal,” explains Ortega. “From the cut, you can tell whether (Edwin) was alive or not.”
The key is in “how has it reacted (the body) when the knife has been passed over the area. “It is not the same as cutting tissue that is dead. It is drier, because it loses moisture. And the cut is different from another in living tissue. It reacts and tries to regenerate as soon as possible to avoid bleeding,” he adds.
However, “there are some moments when it would get complicated Determine if he was dead or not: the recent postmortem process“. “Living beings do not die immediately, as if an electronic device were turned off, but the cells can stay alive for several minutes. Any trauma that affects them can cause them to react as if it had happened when the individual was still alive,” explains Ortega.
The specific time may vary “depending on the health conditions of the individual, the location of the impact zone or even the climate, but it usually does not last a couple of minutes,” warns Ortega, “we must be cautious in this regard.” After that period, “the cells begin to die and it’s over, there is no longer reactive tissue.”
However, the expert recalls that “on one occasion, working with missing persons in armed conflict, we verified that there was a fracture in the hip that was repeated in most of the individuals and they reacted as if they were alive” and later they discovered “that carried out in the moments after death, by dragging the bodies to the mass graves. “It could be seen from the way the bodies were deposited.”
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