The private prosecution maintains that there was sexual assault before the murder and the defense insists that the death was an “accident”
A popular court made up of nine people – plus two substitutes – will judge the case of Manuela Chavera, the woman from monastery (Badajoz) found dead in September 2020, when she was 42 years old, on a farm near the town owned by the confessed author, Eugenio Delgado (28 years).
The detainee – in preventive detention since he was arrested a year and 10 months ago – was taken this Monday from the prison of Badajoz to the Court of Instruction No. 1 of Zafrawho investigates the case. Its head has brought together the parties and the accused himself to confirm that it will be a popular court – as the private prosecution had requested on the basis that it is a crime against life, according to the Organic Law of the Penal Code – who will judge the facts.
In court, and for an approximate time of 45 minutes, the lawyer Guerrero paint, who exercises private prosecution on behalf of the family, has again affected the crimes that will be specified during the trial, which will not begin before 2023: “There was sexual assault, murder and illegal detention,” he told EL MUNDO today . The crime scene is located in the house of the accused, the victim’s neighbor, and whom he tricked into going to his home, located on the same street, just a few meters down from Manuela’s (who had two children), whom I have known since childhood. There he sexually assaulted her and killed her, according to the accusation, which will also include in her accusations the crimes of psychological injuries and non-material damage against Manuela’s parents and against her sister. Emilia. The lawyer has also today requested that statements be taken from other witnesses before the trial begins.
For its part, the detainee’s defense maintains that Manuela died when she involuntarily hit her head on the ground after falling backwards when trying to get a crib, which in principle was the excuse, to return it to her after having lent it to her a long time ago, to that Manuela leave her home and go to Eugenio’s. According to the detainee’s version, when he verified that the woman had died ‘accidentally’ when she slipped, he became very nervous and decided to dispose of the woman’s lifeless body. For that, he put her in the trunk of her car and drove him to her farm, where he buried her.
family ordeal
It was the early morning of July 5, 2016 and only when he was arrested, more than four years later, and after a desperate search for Manuela – who was reported missing – by her family and the neighbors of Monasterio, did he confess that the body was buried, and he took the agents to the exact place where the bone remains were found, already very deteriorated by the passage of time. Thus a case was closed, in the absence of definitive evidence of the Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, after 1,534 days of uncertainty, with several lines of investigation, a bunch of suspects, numerous raids, and a family ordeal that moved this small town of Badajoz. An anonymous letter pointing to the later detainee put the agents on the trail, who arrested him on September 17, although he refused to testify at all times, but he did lend himself to locating Manuela’s body.
This differentiation in the qualification of the crimes – between murder and homicide by omission – will be key to reaching the final conclusion of the popular jury and issuing the sentence. The family’s lawyer considers that there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate her intention to illegally detain her, sexually assault her, murder her and subsequently hide Manuela’s body, for which she will request a reviewable permanent prison sentence.
Predictably, next October there will be a new court appearance with the parties also present in which the order to open the oral trial will be issued by the court. Provincial Court, so the imputation of the judge is provisional at the moment. Then the final qualifications will be produced.
Since the arrest, the UCO has carried out several house searches in the house where Manuela’s death occurred and up to four reconstructions of the events with the presence of the alleged perpetrator of the crime.
Letter from a fellow prisoner
Last year, a prisoner in the Badajoz prison – who is serving a sentence for robbery – sent a letter to the court where he said that Eugenio Delgado told him “the whole truth” about what happened. Called to testify to the court of the case, he ratified the handwritten version of it, in addition to abounding in other details to questions from the parties. “My name is Antonio and I am going to the Zafra court to resolve the case of Manuela Chavero,” wrote this prisoner, who assured in the letter that he knew “the whole truth, because the murderer and person responsible for the events told me verbally, without asking him.”
Thus, he recounted: “When I heard how he did it, I got upset and left his side because I have five sisters. I want justice to be done and I do it because it comes from my heart. I volunteer to testify in front of a judge and in front of the perpetrator, the murderer Eugenio Delgado, who told me how he ended Manuela’s life and laughing as if what he did was something he was proud of”.
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