Wednesday April 05, 2023 | 4:00 p.m.
Late in the afternoon of September 24 of last year, Antonio Ledesma (20) died from a shot to the abdomen.
The event occurred in the West neighborhood of Campo Viera, after which a man, two of his children and a son-in-law were arrested and charged.
From the outset, several witnesses testified that the victim was with friends on the sidewalk when they were shot at by a group of people traveling aboard a Chevrolet Vectra.
It was thus that almost immediately the aggressors were identified and the cause came to have seven detainees, although as the investigation progressed the accusation settled on four: Brígido M. (50), his sons Leandro (20) and Mauricio (17). M. and son-in-law Kevin C. (22).
Meanwhile, although at the time of the event Mauricio M. was a minor, a few days later he turned 18 and for this reason he remains detained along with his father, brother and brother-in-law.
The Investigating Judge One of Oberá, Pedro Piriz, charged them with “aggravated homicide due to the use of a firearm and participation of a minor.”
At the time, the investigation came to have seven suspects. Photo: polmis
However, late in the investigation, in recent days the prosecutor Elías Bys requested the change of title to “homicide in a fight”, which could lead to the release of the defendants.
In dialogue with El Territorio, Norma Macena, the victim’s mother, was outraged by the prosecution’s proposal and anticipated that next Wednesday they will gather in front of the intervening court to express their discomfort.
“This is not how the prosecutor says. It is a tremendous lie that my son died in a fight. My son was with his friends and the others shot at them. This took me by surprise because I expected Justice to act well, but it seems that they are on the side of the murderers, ”he stressed.
Prosecutor in the crosshairs
Macena mentioned that the lawyer representing the family as a private complainant will appeal the change of cover, while questioning the actions of prosecutor Bys.
“The only thing I ask is that the prosecutor reconsider and that the murderers pay, and that the judge carefully analyze the evidence that exists. Several witnesses testified who saw how things happened. I was at the scene and testified. My son and friends fought back. The bullets grazed me and my son managed to tell me ‘mommy run home’. It was a savage attack, it was not a fight as the prosecutor says, ”he remarked.
Visibly dismayed, she opined that “if the others were armed and my son died from a shot in the belly, you don’t need to have an education or be very intelligent to realize that it was not a fight. It was a murder.”
He mentioned that on March 15 Toño, as the victim was called, would have turned 21 years old.
“I am devastated and I do not know if I will ever recover. To top it off, Justice now sides with the murderers, ”she lamented.
On the day of the event, he said that his son was having a beer with friends when some of the defendants passed by on a motorcycle, insulting and threatening.
At one point they warned him of the situation, he went to the corner and saw the attackers approaching shooting.
“I yelled at them that they were going to kill someone; I tell my son to go home, he tells me to run and he tried to cover himself with a tree, but it wasn’t enough because it was a hail of bullets,” recalled the interviewee.
On the other hand, he anticipated that next Wednesday they will congregate in front of the First Investigating Court of Oberá to express their rejection of the change of title requested by the prosecution.
The defense
According to what this morning found out, the request for a cover change would be based on the account of the defendants and some witnesses. In this regard, during his investigation, Brígido M. declared that “I was watching River’s game when they called me to tell me that my gurisada was in a fight. I went to see and it was a flurry of stones, but I did not see that my gurisada had weapons”.
The most committed of the four defendants would be Leandro M., since at least two people accused him of being the author of the shot that cost Ledesma his life.
Brígido M. indicated that he was watching a soccer game when he was told that his children were participating in a fight, whereupon he took his car and went to see what was happening.
Once there, he tried to calm things down and managed to hold Mauricio, his youngest son, who later fled. He also mentioned that he arrived before the Police, despite the fact that several neighbors had alerted the authorities about the lack of control in the West neighborhood.
Brígido M., a well-known merchant and yerba contractor from Campo Viera, insisted that he did not see that his sons had been armed. Always according to his statement, he also did not know that Toño was mortally wounded.
In other words, the parent disassociated himself from the fact, although he did acknowledge that his children participated in an alleged fight and went to look for them.
Leandro and Mauricio M. were arrested four days later in Colonia Oasis when they tried to escape to Paraguay by crossing the Paraná River.
