While reviewing the filming of the robbery over and over again with the City Police detectives, Stephanie L., 30 years old, cried and conveyed anguish. The security cameras at the Núñez restaurant where she worked as a cashier had captured the entry of a thief who, after placing a purse on the counter, threatened her with a firearm and demanded the proceeds from the business: 1,138,000 pesos. But that scene hid a deception. The victim of the robbery became a suspect. Now, Justice considered her part of the criminal plan and prosecuted her for theft.
As reported to THE NATION qualified judicial sources, the event occurred last October 17 at 11 p.m. in Beto’s Lomitoson Avenida del Libertador at 6800. The “staged scene,” as Justice defined it, was discovered thanks to an investigation by the prosecutor Jose Maria Campagnoli and his team, the Communal Investigations Division 13 and the Criminal Investigations Secretariat (SIPE) of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit in Complex Criminal Investigation (Ufecri).
“The intervention of Estefanía L. excludes the assigned figure of robbery, since what was initially thought to be intimidation that integrates its objective aspect, aggravated by the alleged use of a firearm” was proven to be “a scene set up with the sole objective of taking money from the collection“and stay”unpunished to keep his job“, said judges Julio Marcelo Lucini and Magdalena Laínoof Chamber VI of the National Court of Criminal and Correctional Appeals of Buenos Aires.
The High Court partially confirmed the prosecution issued in the first instance by the Judge Edmund Rabbione. But he modified the legal classification of the fact, since the magistrate had decided to prosecute the suspect with preventive detention for the crime of doubly aggravated robbery, for having been committed with a weapon whose fitness to fire cannot be proven. The chambermaids excluded the figure of aggravated robbery with a weapon assuming that it was a lie situation, acted out for the establishment’s security camera.
In addition to Estefanía L., he was also prosecuted for theft, Gabriel V., a former employee of the restaurant who had gotten the job recommended by her, but who had been forced to resign after an episode of violence.
To unravel the “staging” the analysis of the footage obtained by the Urban Monitoring Center (CMU) from the recordings of the security cameras in the area, where it was possible to determine in which car the criminal who entered the restaurant armed was traveling.
It was a white Renault Clio. The SIPE requested collaboration from the Digital Ring Division of the City Police for identification of the vehicle license plate. It was determined that the car was in the name of a young man residing in the Chacarita neighborhood. The house at that address was searched and the owner of the vehicle said: “On October 17, Gabriel V., an acquaintance and friend, asked me to take a trip for his cousin, who had to go to Belgrano and then to San Martín.”
He said that with Gabriel V. and the supposed cousin it was a third person, whom he did not know, who was the one who got out of the car when they arrived at their destination: he was the armed robber who entered the restaurant.
In addition, he provided the cell phone numbers used by the young man who requested the trip. The telephone lines used by Gabriel V. were key pieces in the investigation. First, it was determined that four days after the robbery the suspect called Estefanía L. several times.
Later, investigators summoned the owner of Beto’s Lomitos as a witness.
“The owner of the store said that, despite not having completed her task of closing the cash register, Estefanía L. stated at the police station that 1,140,000 pesos had been stolen, which caught her attention because the next day the morning manager carried out the audit, which yielded $1,138,000. The owner of the premises believes that there was a deliberate decision by her employee to hand over the money that was in that safe deposit box, when the cash register was in front of her and, on the safe deposit box (of which she was one of the two employees who had access to the key) there was a compartment with small change that he could have easily accessed to hand over to the thief,” according to what he reconstructed THE NATION from sources in the case aware of the statement.
Furthermore, investigators later not only determined that there were several communications between Gabriel V. and Estefanía L. on October 21, four days after the robbery, but that they also existed before the armed robber broke into Beto’s Lomitos.
“With the elements of the charge that appear in the case, it was determined that Gabriel V., Estefanía L. and the still unidentified man who entered the premises with a weapon organized and planned the robbery, with the collaboration of the owner of the car that “He transferred them to Núñez,” said Judge Rabbione when ordering the prosecution of the suspects.
As a defense, Estefanía L. presented a document explaining that she had nothing to do with the incident and that she was a victim, like the owners of the premises. She clarified that she knew the amount of money stolen because her partner had done the counting on the previous shift.
Furthermore, he denied that, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office maintained, he had used part of the money from the robbery to pay the expenses of his wedding party. “It was a very austere celebration. “A friend gave me the cake.”held.
Regarding the calls with Gabriel V., before and after the episode, he stated that “they had nothing to do with the incident” and clarified that “although they were co-workers and argued, then they became friends and maintained a good relationship.”