Escaped murderer sends judges 'postcards from paradise'
Thursday, December 18, 2014 @ 9:32 AM
A CONVICTED murderer wanted by a Spanish court has been taunting judges by sending them postcards from the Caribbean.
Walter Jerôme C. R., a French national, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the fatal shooting of Dutchman Johannes Everardus Engel in the town of Aler, in the Pyrénéen province of Huesca, northern Aragón.
This was in 2006, three years after the murder, following a trial by jury, but the Supreme Court declared the sentence void on a technicality and ordered a fresh hearing after the killer had been behind bars for 18 months out of a 24-year sentence.
Although the Supreme Court magistrates considered that the jury had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused fired the fatal shot – particularly as he had pleaded guilty – they did not believe there was sufficient evidence to prove his motives or that he did so in cold blood.
The hearing was scheduled for January 11, 2008, but the sentence being declared null and void meant the prisoner had automatically had to be released before then.
This gave him time to flee the country.
An international arrest warrant was issued and, upon learning this, the killer sent a postcard from the island of Margarita, off the coast of Venezuela, to Huesca provincial court in what were described as 'jovial tones'.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com