Since August 24, 2018, Juan Llancanao’s family has been asking for justice. That night, The young man was murdered with a shot to the head, on Sobral and Sarmiento streets, in the 170 Homes neighborhood of Bariloche. The victim was 27 years old, was defenseless and was shot in the back. More than five years later, the crime remains unpunished.
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation dismissed – due to formal defects – a complaint appeal who had presented the defense of Rubén Darío Millalonco.
The resolution that the judges of the Court, Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, Juan Carlos Maqueda and Ricardo Lorenzetti issued on December 21 He closed the door on the last alternative that Millalonco had to avoid sitting in the dock again.
LThe Court did not agree to review the resolution of the Appeal Court (TI) of Río Negro, which it annulled at the beginning of June 2019 a ruling from the Bariloche trial court that had acquitted the accused.
The first trial and a controversial acquittal
Judges Marcos Burgos, Gregor Joos and Juan Martín Arroyo tried Millalonco, who was accused by the prosecutor of the case Betiana Cendón and the lawyer Karina Chueri, who represented the family of the victim, who became the plaintiff. They charged him with homicide aggravated by the use of a firearm.
The prosecutor maintained – with the adhesion of the complaint – that On the night of August 24, 2018, Millalonco, after arguing with the victim, pulled out a firearm, possibly a 38 caliber, and shot Llancano in the head, killing him. The homicide occurred in the vicinity of building 8, between Sobral and Sarmiento streets in this city, meters from an urban passenger transport checkpoint.
Afterwards, the accused fled, along with another young man who was accompanying him.. And more than twelve hours later, they showed up at the 28th police station, and were detained.
LThe judges acquitted him on April 1, 2019 for the benefit of the doubt and he regained his freedom. The court unanimously concluded that the evidence presented by the prosecution and the complaint did not overturn the state of innocence of the accused. The victim’s family was shocked.
The prosecution offered a key witness at trial for its theory of the case. This was the young man who observed the homicide and who accompanied the suspect that night. The court warned that this witness was charged and detained in the first stage of the investigation for having participated in the homicide, but was released after incriminating Millalonco. For the judges he was not a convincing witness.
Judges Marcos Burgos, Gregor Joos and Juan Martín Arroyo tried and acquitted the accused. (file photo)
The discussion over gunpowder waste
The prosecution presented as objective evidence the presence of traces of gunpowder on Millalonco’s hands. But the judges pointed out that the experts had explained that these particles on the hands could be due to the production of gases generated by a projectile shot from a 38 caliber revolver type weapon..
According to the experts, the presence ofe particles found in the hands of the accused, although they are due to the firing of a firearm, do not necessarily imply that the person possessing them is the person who fired the shot.
Cendón and the complaint challenged the acquittal ruling and the TI admitted the appeals. In June 2019, he annulled the sentence and ordered a new trial with other judges.
The TI judges They highlighted that Burgos, Joos and Arroyo arbitrarily evaluated the evidence presented in the trial against Millalonco. Above all, the testimony of the expert who carried out the electronic scanning and detected 15 characteristic particles, which contain the components of lead, antimony and barium, “arising solely from the use of a firearm”, in the accused’s left hand.
After that setback, the defense appealed to the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) of Río Negro, which rejected the extraordinary appeal to take the case to the Supreme Court. But the highest national court days ago dismissed the complaint. For this reason, there will be another trial, on a date that will be defined by the Bariloche Judicial Office.
The accusing parties, -Prosecutor’s Office and Complaint-,