In the first days of March, once the arguments of the parties have finished, scheduled for February 23 (the accusers) and 28 (the defense), the Oral Court 2 of Mar del Plata will announce the verdict of the second trial against Matías Gabriel Farías (29) and Juan Pablo Offidani (47)acquitted in 2018 and tried again for the presumption of being responsible for the sad death of the adolescent Lucía Pérez, which occurred on October 8, 2016.
Last week the testimonial statement round ended. Nearly 40 people passed through the small room on the sixth floor of the Mar del Plata Courts -the vast majority proposed by the accusing parties, the Prosecutor Leandro Arevalo and the lawyers representing the Pérez Montero family, Veronica Heredia and Florencia Piermarini– In six hearings: relatives of the victim, forensic doctors, police, health professionals from the health unit where the death of the minor was verified, and neighbors, among others.
The judges Gustavo Fissore, Alexis Simaz and Roberto Falcone -who last Thursday visited the box where the event occurred- have strong social pressure on their shoulders. The Chamber of Cassation annulled in 2020 the ruling that had resolved the acquittal of Farías and Offidani two years earlier and ordered a new trial without incorporating new evidence. In addition, he sent the magistrates of that court to impeachment.
In this second debate, in addition, Lucía’s family was accompanied at the first hearing by Horace PietragallaNational Human Rights Secretary, and Estela DiazMinister of Women, Gender Policies and Sexual Diversity of the Province of Buenos Aires, which earned public criticism from the official defender of Farías, María Laura Solari: “They should also guarantee the rights of the accused because that is what it is for “told the local portal 0223.
These are the main aspects of the trial:
Who are the defendants and what crime are they accused of: Matías Gabriel Farías and Juan Pablo Offidani are suspected of having committed the crime of “sexual abuse with carnal access, aggravated by the supply of narcotics followed by death in an ideal contest with femicide.” The crime contemplates a sentence of life imprisonment. Offidani, meanwhile, is charged as a “secondary participant”, which would indicate his role was not decisive in carrying out the crime.
What happened on October 8, 2016: It is known that on the morning of that long weekend Saturday, Lucía Pérez was taken to the small house of Farías, in the Alfar neighborhood of Mar del Plata, by Offidani. The teenager and Farias had been chatting since the day before, when they met: the girl, through a friend’s contact, bought marijuana at the door of her school (for this fact, both defendants were sentenced to eight years in prison , shame they are complying).
Farías insisted that they meet that same night, but Pérez told him that it would be better to meet on Saturday. Between 10:30 and 15, presumably, they had sex and at least Lucía used cocaine. She then fainted and Farías called Offidani for help.
It may interest you: “How do I explain it, what do I say?”: a witness recounted the reaction of the accused of killing Lucía Pérez after the crime
The man arrived with Alejandro Maciel (he died in 2020) and the three of them took the girl to the Playa Serena Health Unit, where a doctor confirmed her death after trying to keep her alive with resuscitation maneuvers for half an hour.
Farías stayed in the living room until the police arrived and accompanied them to look for the friend who had made contact in order to locate the family, of whom the defendant knew nothing. He also took them to his house to give them the victim’s belongings. The next day, just, he would be arrested.
What the medical experts say about the victim’s body: It is always said that in crimes, the victim’s body “speaks”. On February 9, the professionals of the Medical Board of the Supreme Court testified before the Court, who analyzed the corpse and its marks.
Silvina Cabrera, Mónica Tinto and Sebastián de los Reyes explained that Lucía died as a result of “toxic suffocation” mainly caused by cocaine use. They clarified that it was not necessarily an overdose (in fact, it was never possible to verify how much she took or what quality the substance was).
In addition, they explained that the body of the victim had no signs of sexual violence. Although They were not forceful regarding ruling out that there was no sexual abuse. The specialists once again confirmed that, contrary to what the investigating prosecutor, María Isabel Sánchez, had communicated (and later rectified), Lucía was not “impaled” nor was her body washed after her death.
And they remarked that the possibility of a sexual injury in the victim’s genital area was low. This consideration was contrasted in the statement of Lucía’s gynecologist, summoned for one of the last hearings by the accusing party. The specialist said that there were marks that she did not see the last time she checked it, in April 2016, that is, six months before.
“Signs of violence on the genital level are compatible with a consensual relationship, does not mean that at that time it happened that way. He may have been forced, or not. There are injuries but not of a magnitude that leads to the unavoidable conclusion (of abuse)”, explained one of the doctors of the Board before the Court.
It may interest you: According to forensic experts, Lucía Pérez died of cocaine use and without signs of sexual assault
The concept of consent, key to the verdict: Both in the first trial and in this one in 2023, the material evidence does not seem to indicate that there was sexual abuse, murder or femicide. However, what the judges must surely assess for the verdict is how much the disparity of power between Farías and Offidani and Lucía Pérez influenced. For the accusing parties, although the Criminal Code contemplates consent in sexual relations from the age of 16, there was an asymmetry between Pérez and Farías, who was 23 years old at that time.
On this axis, both the prosecutor Arévalo and the representatives of the victim’s family will try to convince the Court in their allegations of February 23. Is consent possible between a minor girl and her dealer of drugs? For that, they will insist, it is necessary to evaluate the case from a gender perspective. As Infobae was able to learn, the accusing parties were satisfied with this trial because “the debate could be placed on the fact and not on the intimate life of the victim” and it was clear that there was a “false existence of consent” and that what was unfolded as a consented fact it was not such and it was demonstrated with the consequences, that is, with the death of Lucía.
For the defenses, on the other hand, there is no material evidence to convict the defendants, especially that there was no sexual assault. In their pleadings they will insist that the Court has to decide based on the evidence and they consider that the 2018 ruling was correct, although it was annulled due to the semantics of the ruling, certainly scandalous. They will highlight Farías’ collaborative attitude after Lucía’s decompensation. And, in the case of Offidani, who directly had nothing to do with it, that he only responded to a call for help (that of Farías).
“Casación did not annul the previous trial nor was it able to issue a conviction, which is why it did the simplest thing that was to wash its hands. They were not sentenced because there is nothing to prove that a crime occurred,” commented a close friend of one of the defenses, who considered that the accusers “have nothing” against Farías and Offidani and dedicated themselves to raising “intricate theories with the police or corrupt doctors. The defenses consider that the case has such media pressure that “we have to prove innocence” and that proving “consent” in that context is impossible.
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