Monday December 26, 2022 | 5:30 p.m.
On May 20 of last year, bodybuilder Javier Orlando Batista (43) was sentenced to nine years in prison for assaulting and leaving his ex-concubine Yenifer Guayaré (29) a quadriplegic.
The testimonies of the victim and of a former partner who also suffered violence, such as the defendant’s actions after the fact and the technical contribution of a forensic doctor, laid the foundations for the sentence imposed by Criminal Court One of Oberá.
Batista was found “criminally responsible for the crime of very serious injuries double qualified by the relationship and by gender violence” and transferred to Penal Unit VIII of Cerro Azul.
But barely a year and seven months elapsed and he was benefited from the extraordinary release under oath bail and he regained his freedom.
The measure was completed last Friday, just on Christmas Eve, by order of the same Court that sentenced him. The resolution, to which this medium had access, is signed by President Francisco Aguirre.
Said benefit was requested by the defense and was based on the fact that the sentence is not final, on the good conduct of the defendant and that prior to the oral trial he was free and did not hinder the process.
Meanwhile, in dialogue with El Territorio, Guayaré was surprised and outraged by the judicial decision and assured that at least until yesterday she had not been notified about it.
He even found out about Batista’s release through this means. “How can it be. What an injustice ”, was his first reaction.
“Yesterday (on Saturday) I left the hospital and I have this for breakfast. My God, ”he said, while warning that he currently does not have police custody, a guarantee he had prior to last year’s trial.
“This scares me a lot”
Dismayed by the news, Guayaré said that at the beginning of the month she suffered pancreatitis and had to be admitted to intensive care. On Thursday she underwent surgery and on Saturday she was discharged after 19 days in the hospital.
“I do not understand Justice, this cannot be. They didn’t notify me that they released him either. This scares me a lot, ”she stressed, anguished.
As proven in the trial, in the early morning of December 15, 2016, Batista and Guayaré attended a dinner at the Club Cooperativa and later had an argument that culminated outside, when she fell to the ground after receiving a blow that caused her an injury. very serious
Before the Court, the victim recounted that they began to argue over a scene of jealousy from her partner who treated her as a “whore”.
Around one o’clock they left the event room and she asked him for the keys to the house, a circumstance in which Batista “turned around and grabbed me by the hair, from the front with both hands. There I no longer remember. Then I felt a lot of pain in my neck, and the feeling of not being able to move”.
Then they put her in the defendant’s stepfather’s car and took her to the hospital, where her partner spoke to the doctor on duty and told him that she was drunk and fell.
“At all times I told him that he had hit me. But the doctor Luis Derna told me not to worry, that it was going to happen to me (…) I told the doctor that my partner hit me. I accused him and he left, ”he assured.
“The doctor treated me drunk. I had to file a complaint in Posadas because they did not listen to me here, ”he said in relation to his subsequent transfer to the Madariaga Hospital.
The injury suffered by Guayaré caused irreparable damage to her cervical spine, to the point that she became a quadriplegic and must use a wheelchair.
In the oral debate, the statement of the prestigious traumatologist Santiago Balderrama who operated on Guayaré at the Madariaga de Posadas hospital was read, who concluded that “he will never have mobility or recover one hundred percent of his functions.”
Meanwhile, from the outset, Batista’s defense insisted on his client’s innocence, arguing that the victim was drunk and fell alone. They also emphasized a pre-existing tumor that the victim had, whose existence she was unaware of and could trigger the paralysis that afflicts her.
In this regard, the forensic doctor Horacio Marín specified that the fall “had to have enough intensity to cause an injury”, which raised doubts that a simple trip could have had a tremendous consequence.
According to prosecutor Estela Salguero, Batista’s blow “caused her to fall and caused her to displace the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae, with such bad luck that she had a tumor (osteoma), whose existence she was unaware of, which moves and causes immobility.” of its members and permanent disability.
He added that in her complaint the victim stated that the relationship was always conflictive due to the jealousy of the person involved. She said that they had many discussions and said that she once broke his cell phone, an issue that another ex-partner also recounted.
“There are no eyewitnesses to what happened, which is why I believe that Yenifer’s statements are real. Neither in the investigation nor here in the room was it observed that he lied or wanted to harm Javier ”, Salguero remarked.
beaten and abandoned
The prosecutor also delved into Batista’s attitudes after the fact, which added evidence for the prosecution.
“There is a very striking situation in Javier’s attitude, who at all times said that he helped her and that he took her to the hospital, which is true, but in the hospital she was left alone. Notably Javier left. She has parents, siblings, an aunt who works at the hospital; but she left and did not call any relatives. A nurse later called the aunt.
The sister who was with him also did nothing so that the relatives could find out what happened to Yenifer. She undoubtedly made that decision because it benefited him. All this comes from a violent person, ”she remarked in her statement.
He also referred to the testimony of Paola Ramírez, Batista’s ex-partner who gave testimony and accused him of violence.
“He revealed to us what he suffered while with this subject, he never named him. When she looked at him he said this subject. And he said that he was very aggressive, very violent, a dominant person and constantly harassed. I was his property, said the witness. That she had to do everything he said, and she recounted a very violent situation that happened to her when a person came to her home to give her a resume and Javier accused her of having a relationship. Even if it had been infidelity, she should never have acted like that, squeezed her neck, thrown her to the ground, thrown her on the bed, hit her with a belt, threatened her with death, ”questioned the prosecutor.
He also cited that the psychological report defines him as an obsessive personality with difficulty managing his impulses.
strength and aggressiveness
Prosecutor Salguero concluded that there are elements to accuse the bodybuilder.
“All this shows that the victim did not fall alone. That night Javier gave free rein to his impulses, to his aggressiveness. Out of control because of his jealousy, he hit Yénifer, who fell with such bad luck that having that tumor caused her permanent disability. There is no doubt that Javier hit him, ”he remarked.
And he added: “The doctors said that a blow must be struck with force. Here today, Dr. Marín said that the force of the blow must have a certain intensity. Let’s not forget that he is a person who works in a gym, who does weights and is robust, before a thin woman. Undoubtedly, Javier’s strength acted on the victim’s physical weakness. And he must answer for this very serious fact ”.
The defense argument was made by Orlando Flosi, co-defendant with Héctor Flosi. According to the lawyer, the night of the event there was a disagreement between the couple, but “at all times Batista escaped the hypothesis of conflict. He left the place and was followed by the complainant ”.
He opined that the prosecutor’s accusation lacked foundations and that “the only proof is the victim’s complaint, and it is loaded with contradictions.” Flosi insisted on analyzing the kinematics of the event and made progress on the pre-existing lesion due to a tumor that “got embedded in the spinal canal.”
Regarding Paola Ramírez’s testimony, she said that “she appeared with a fanciful story to make her look like a monster.”
“It is a latent danger,” said his ex-partner
In the trial, the engineer Paola Ramírez (37), Batista’s ex-partner, testified.
“Based on my experience, because I know him, I know that there may be retaliation; but I’m still here ”, she indicated at the beginning.
“I was his property. He told me all the time: ‘if you cheat on me, I’ll kill you’, and he worked on me with the guilt. That I was the reason for his life; that without me, his life ended. He used phrases like ‘you’re mine, that’s why you have to do what I want. You have to make me happy’. He was totally commanding and absorbing,” she stressed.
Before the Court, the witness assured that the person involved had mood swings, became very aggressive and unpredictable. Meanwhile, he said that on one occasion he assaulted her because he suspected that she had a lover.
“He was very excited and he started screaming, he grabbed my cell phone, threw it away and stomped on it. Then he grabbed me by the neck, screaming, and threw me to the ground. I thought he was going to kill me. Then he grabbed my arm, threw me on the bed and threatened me with a leather belt, and he told me to tell him the truth or he was going to beat me to death, ”he recalled.
Ramírez reflected that “violence against women has not and has never had a real punishment, that is why femicides and rapists are not afraid of being so. Please do not underestimate him because this subject is a latent danger.”
