The trial was held throughout the morning in Section Six of the Provincial Court, presided over by Judge María Pilar Lahoz. Malcolm D. S., Christian H. N. M., Hilario M. K. E. and Oualid S. M. sat in the dock, with the first three in pretrial custody in connection with the case. The prosecution has charged the first three with four robberies involving violence or intimidation and two counts of causing injury, while Oualid faces charges only for one of the assaults and the injuries linked to it.
According to the events reconstructed during the hearing, the attacks took place throughout that early morning at different locations in the Aragonese capital, putting several National Police patrols on alert and mobilizing them. On Santa Lucía Street, at around 4:50 a.m., one of the victims said on Monday that he heard someone calling him and, when he turned around, was attacked. “The one who put me in a chokehold lifted me onto my tiptoes and then everything went dark,” he said. His mobile phone, money and bank cards were stolen. Asked by the prosecution whether he recognized any of his attackers on Monday, the victim said he could not really identify any of them because he was more focused on “the arm that was holding me” than on their faces.
A CHOKEHOLD AND KICKS BESIDE A BUS SHELTER NEAR LA ALJAFERÍA
Another incident took place hours later on Madrid Avenue, near La Aljafería. The victim said he was returning from a night out when a group approached him and one of its members began patting him down in an apparently friendly manner. Shortly afterward, beside a bus stop, he felt an arm around his neck. “I counted eight seconds and then everything went black,” he testified. Two witnesses returning from an office party dinner then saw the man on the ground being kicked and alerted the police.
The officers who arrived at the scene said the witnesses provided them with a description of the group, including a very tall man with braids and another wearing a mustard-colored jacket. Shortly afterward, they located several young men heading toward the Delicias neighborhood. One of the officers recalled that one of them was wearing sneakers covered in a large amount of blood and, when asked about the stains, jokingly replied that it was “tomato sauce.”
Forensic Police provided one of the most significant elements of the investigation: genetic analyses of the blood found on the sneakers established that it matched one of the victims. Another officer also described how, once in the cells at the Actur-Rey Fernando police station, a bank card belonging to another victim was found on the same detainee.
ONE VICTIM SPENT A WEEK IN HOSPITAL
Another of the assaults under investigation took place at around 2:50 a.m. near the Lycée Français, in the area of María Montessori Street and the Avenue of the Pyrenees. The victim has no memory of the attack. He explained that he only became aware of what had happened approximately half an hour later, as he approached his home and discovered that he was no longer carrying his phone, keys or other belongings. He had pain in his face and the back of his neck and ended up spending a week at Miguel Servet Hospital with several vertebral fractures.
The investigation into that incident also led to several subsequent payments made with the stolen card. Investigators found several charges totaling around 53 euros at Mapache bar and analyzed footage showing several individuals following a person along the Avenue of the Pyrenees. The victim, represented in the proceedings by a private prosecution, said on Monday that he had been returning from an office party dinner that night when he was attacked.
“I DID COMMIT A ROBBERY OR TWO”
The most significant testimony of the morning came from Christian H. N. M. The defendant admitted taking part in some of the events and sought to distance the other defendants from them. “I did commit a robbery or two, but it wasn’t with any of these guys,” he said. He also admitted that he was the one who used the chokehold in one of the attacks and, when asked about images included in the case file, acknowledged his presence in another incident. “I’m not going to lie to your face; the one in the cameras was me,” he said.
The defendant also acknowledged that there was blood on his sneakers when he was arrested. “I denied it, and of course I didn’t realize I had blood on my sneakers, and that was my mistake. I didn’t think it would become so complicated,” he told the court. At the judge’s request, he even demonstrated visually how he carried out the chokehold, maintaining that he used the technique to rob people and not with the intention of causing harm.
Malcolm D. S. denied taking part in the robberies and said that he had gone out partying that night and had got into a fight with someone else at a nightclub, which he offered as an explanation for some of the injuries he had sustained. Hilario Mauricio K. E., represented by José Luis Melguizo, also denied any involvement and said he was heading home, which was near the place where he was arrested. Oualid S. M., represented by Javier Elía, likewise denied the only robbery attributed to him and maintained that he had merely seen the victim lying on the ground while he was returning toward Delicias.
During the officers’ testimony, an unusual phrase was also heard in the courtroom. One of the police officers, explaining that he had previously encountered several of the defendants during earlier interventions around Delicias Park, said: “We’ve known them almost since they were little.” That police familiarity, in any case, cannot replace the evidence that the court must now assess to determine the role each defendant played in that series of robberies.
The prosecution is seeking lengthy prison sentences for the acts, which together amount to more than 90 years in prison. In the case of Hilario Mauricio K. E., represented by lawyer José Luis Melguizo, the sentence sought during the trial is 26 years in prison, based on four charges of robbery involving violence or intimidation and two counts of causing injury. For Oualid S. M., charged only in connection with one of the incidents, the prosecution is seeking seven years. María Fornoza is representing Malcolm D. S. and Christian H. N. M., while Javier Elía is defending Oualid S. M.
