Sunday, February 5, 2023 | 8:49 p.m.
Tomás D’Alessandro was on eleven of the thirteen days of the judicial process in Court No. 1 of Dolores: he was one of the 87 witnesses who gave their testimony. He was also at the dawn of January 18, 2020 in Villa Gesell and at the door of the Le Brique bowling alley where Fernando Báez Sosa was attacked by a group of young people. Tomás was also beaten by at least two of the defendants that he saw again in the Palacio de los Tribunales in the framework of an oral trial. He was a close friend of Fernando, a classmate from the Marianista College.
Tomorrow, Monday, February 6, three years after the crime, the sentence will be announced against the eight accused of killing Fernando Báez Sosa with treachery and premeditation. On the eve of that event, while waiting for the verdict, Tomás published a letter on his social networks. The letter is also accompanied by an unpublished photo: the two with sunglasses in the middle of a party, having fun. The message has an addition at the beginning and a section at the end.
“During all this time and the experiences I have lived, I have been reflecting on a lot of things, and I want to take advantage of the moment to say a few words to everyone who is interested,” he says at the beginning. “To close, I want to thank you all for your messages and to place an order that is already more than well known, but that it never hurts to remember. JUSTICE FOR FER!!!”, she describes at the end. What he says in the middle of both excerpts is linked to the death of his friend but not only to that. He wrote the word get involved nine times and, not coincidentally, he did it in all caps.
“GET INVOLVED. Simply that. GET INVOLVED to defend a friend, GET INVOLVED to help someone in need, GET INVOLVED to give some peace to a family member who is going through a bad time, GET INVOLVED to provide a little light in dark moments, GET INVOLVED even if it means risking yourself, GET INVOLVED even if you are afraid and don’t know what can happen, GET INVOLVED even if others tell you not to, GET INVOLVED even if you think you have everything to lose. You have no idea of what you can generate simply by getting involved. Never let fear win you over. Be encouraged to GET INVOLVED, and be encouraged to DO, because that’s what life is about, DO. Start the career that you want to study so much, apply for that job that you are looking for so much, tell that person you like so much what you feel, embark on that project that you are so afraid of starting. But don’t stay with the desire, because life is too short to regret something you wanted to do but didn’t do.
In July 2018, Tomás had published two photos similar to the latter: hugging Fernando, with the same sunglasses, in mesh and without a shirt, having fun at a party. At that time, he wrote: “6 months have passed and we continue to ask for justice like the first day. We miss you crazy, Fer ”. One day before the resolution of María Claudia Castro, Christian Rabaia and Emiliano Lázzari is known, he reposts a photo with him, again demands justice and asks that everyone get involved.
He did it to defend his friend. He said that he tried to defend him and that three punches left him face down. “That’s when they started beating me. I grabbed the legs or pants of one of the aggressors. Then I let go and they kicked me and, when I got back up, I was face to face with a man with a robust build whom, from the videos, I identify as Lucas Pertossi”. In his statement that he gave on Tuesday, January 3, before the judges, he added that he heard Matías Benicelli yelling at Fernando: “Let’s see if you hit again, black shit.” He recounted that he asked one of the rugby players why he had hit him and they replied: “The problem is not with you, it’s with your friends.” After that, he reported that he turned around and saw his friend “face up and bloody.” He was treated in a hospital because he had “a nearly split lip, a black eye and blows to his body.”
His testimony was key to the investigation because he located several defendants at the crime scene and detailed how the beating had taken place. Every morning he came with his mother to listen to the defense arguments, the arguments of the rugby players’ lawyers, to rewatch the videos of the attack, to stare at the attackers, to remember the tragic night of that summer of 2020. in Villa Gesell, where he had gone with Lucas Filardi, Juan Bautista Besuzzo, Santiago Corbo, Julián García, Federico Raulera and Fernando to enjoy their vacations.
