Crime in Villa Gesell: the eight accused of killing Fernando Báez Sosa are already in Dolores for the trial that begins tomorrow

With the beginning of the judicial fair, the oral and public trial will begin against the eight young people accused of having beaten Fernando Báez Sosa to death, a crime that occurred on January 18, 2020 in Villa Gesell. The defendants, who have been detained for almost two years, were transferred very early today from Melchor Romero's Alcaidía 3, in La Plata, to the centenary Unit 6 of Dolores. Everything is ready so that tomorrow, at 9 o'clock, they will be sitting on the bench, before the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) No. 1 of Dolores, to face very serious charges and the expectation of receiving the maximum sentence. The first witnesses to the debate will be Silvino Báez and Graciela Sosa, the victim's parents.

“The eight defendants planned and agreed to ambush, with the intent to kill, Fernando Báez Sosa. It will prove that there was treachery. It is very clear, to us, that there was a decision. The decision was to take the life of the victim. We are going to work so that the defendants are sentenced to life imprisonment. For us, the eight were co-authors of the crime. They all played a role," the lawyer Fernando Burlando, who represents the parents of the murdered young man, told LA NACION.

Luciano Pertossi, 21 years old and nicknamed Chano; Ciro Pertossi, 22; Lucas Pertossi, 23; Ayrton Viollaz, 23; Maximum Thomsen, 23; Enzo Comelli, 22; Matías Benicelli, 23, and Blas Cinalli, 21, are accused of "double aggravated Homicide due to treachery and the premeditated cooperation of two or more people."

In addition, the criminal responsibilities of all of them for the injuries suffered by five of Báez Sosa's friends, who were with him when he was murdered, will be debated at the trial.

Today, at 8 o'clock, a cell phone from the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service (SPB) transferred the eight defendants from the La Plata 3 Departmental Warden, located in Melchor Romero, to the Dolores prison, where they will remain housed while the trial lasts.

"The first day we are going to testify so that we can be in the courtroom for the entire trial, but we don't know if we are going to be able to last that long there because it is a very hard time to remember everything they did to my son," said the father of the victim in journalistic statements.

It is expected, in principle, that throughout the debate 170 witnesses testify. The hearings, in charge of judges María Claudia Castro, Christian Rabaia and Emiliano Lazzari, will be held in the Multifueros Hearing Room of the Palacio de Tribunales de Dolores, the same one where the trial was held for the murder of photojournalist José Luis Cabezas, executed in General Madariaga on January 25, 1997.

The Public Ministry will be represented by prosecutors Juan Manuel Dávila and Gustavo García. The eight defendants are defended by the lawyer Hugo Tomei.

For the second day, the testimonial statements of Julieta Rossi, Báez Sosa's girlfriend, and ten friends of the victim, eyewitnesses of the crime that occurred in the early morning of January 18, 2020 in front of the Le Brique nightclub, in Villa Gesell, are scheduled. .

“When I left [de Le Brique] the ambulance was there and Fer was on the floor; I remember I saw him, but I didn't know it was him. There was Santiago Corbo [a friend of Báez Sosa], I asked him who [the person who was in the apartment] was. He told me it was Fer. He grabbed me and I don't remember much else. I vomited on the side of the street, I wanted to go to where [his boyfriend of his] was, but the girl from the ambulance and Santiago Corbo would not let me get close, ”Rossi said at the beginning of his testimonial statement in the investigation of the case.

According to the request for trial signed by prosecutor Verónica Zamboni, when Julieta Rossi was asked what projects she had with Fernando, she replied: “Fer was my first boyfriend and I was his. We are [sic] 19 years old, we were learning together. The projects were silly things, capable, but they meant a lot to us. He was my boyfriend, but he was also my best friend."

One of Báez Sosa's friends who is going to testify at the second hearing is Juan Bautista Besuzzo. When he testified during the investigation of the case, he maintained: "The first male who hit Fernando was tall, 1.85 meters tall, with a robust build, dark brown hair, who wore a white T-shirt, brown boots, and apparently pants burgundy or brown I think that this masculine with the blow made Fernando sit down. There I see Fernando on his knees. This boy hit Fernando on the floor, kicked him at least three times in the jaw. There Fernando no longer responded. I stay in front, shocked, and I see Fernando on the floor, passed out, as if in a fetal position”.

Besuzzo recalled that the group of friends arrived by bus at Villa Gesell on January 16, 2020 and stayed at the Hola Ola hostel. The weekend ended in tragedy.

For the second hearing, the testimony of Julián García, another friend of Báez Sosa, is also expected. It is about the boy who, at 4:40 a.m. on that tragic January 18, 2020, was attacked by a group of young people. Fernando was kicked out of the bowling alley by the patovicas for trying to defend him.

“After five minutes of being there [outside the bowling alley], chatting with the boys about why they had been taken out and about what had happened inside, is when a group of young people appears. They were six or seven. They started beating us all. I received a blow to the mouth, but it was nothing; others received more than me. I was stunned because it was in one ear [the blow]. I went in front to look for the security of Le Brique. One of the aggressors said verbatim 'now what happens we are outside', as if inciting the fight. When I turn around I see Fernando in leather [sic], lying on the floor, and they were kicking him; At no time did I see a weapon or any element, they were pineapples and kicks, ”García said in his statement in the file instruction.

Sources close to the eight defendants explained to LA NACION that it has not yet been decided if the defendants are going to testify in the debate, that said situation will be defined according to the presentation of the witnesses.

"They are going through the detention experience adequately," a person who speaks regularly with the eight young people told LA NACION.

I vomited on the side of the street, I wanted to go to where [his boyfriend of his] was, but the girl from the ambulance and Santiago Corbo would not let me get close, ”Rossi said at the beginning of his testimonial statement in the investigation of the case.