Thursday, January 12, 2023 | 8:45 a.m.
What happened in Villa Gesell during the early morning of Fernando Báez Sosa’s crime was recorded in at least ten videos taken from security cameras, cell phones of the defendants and from the notes published by Infobae. Thanks to this record, during the sixth trial hearing, Javier Pablo Laborde, secretary of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, managed to chronologically reconstruct what happened between 4:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on January 18, 2020. This Thursday, the videos will be the key to the debate: four members of the Argentine Federal Police will present how, based on this audiovisual material, they carried out the facial identification of the aggressors.
Although fourteen witnesses were initially scheduled, according to Infobae, for the ninth day most of them will not be required by the prosecutors Juan Manuel Dávila and Gustavo García, nor by the complaint, headed by the lawyers Fernando Burlando and Fabián and Facundo Améndola.
Those confirmed are Yanina Cuenca, Agostina Matticoli, Ricardo Gabriel Pisoli and Andrés Bruzzese, members of the PFA specialized in facial analysis, who will testify jointly starting at 9 before the Oral Criminal Court No. 1.
The troops will focus on the detailed and frame-by-frame analysis of the video images incorporated into the case, which were used to try to identify the defendants from the facial comparison work.
Due to the volume of material analysed, a statement is expected that could take several hours.
During the investigation stage, prosecutor Verónica Zamboni ordered “a video expertise” on the footage obtained with the aim of “obtaining greater clarity.” In addition, she required “an expertise in film comparison and facial comparative analysis” to determine if the people observed in the film images corresponded, or not, with any of the (at that time ten) defendants.
As stated in the requisition, Zamboni requested that the comparison be carried out based on the photographs that were taken of the defendants with their prior consent, those of the records of the computer system of the Technical Offices for Identification of Persons (OTIP) de Dolores and, eventually, those of the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER).
To this end, Yanina Cuenca and Agostina Matticoli, from the Criminal Individualization Division, prepared expert facial comparison reports, surveying the videos where the events were recorded (Le Brique) and the sequences where the defendants met in a local restaurant. fast, near the place where the homicide took place.
Subsequently, Deputy Commissioner Andrés Nicolás Bruzzese, current 2nd Chief of the Criminal Identification Division, and Inspector Ricardo Ariel Pisoli, of the Police Photography Division, improved the images of various films incorporated into the case. At the time of their intervention, both officers were members of the High Complexity Criminal Unit (UCAC).
Thanks to the results of these tests, it was possible, for example, to identify five of the attackers at the moment they were intercepted by police personnel at the door of the “Marina Supermarket”, located half a block from Le Brique.
“It was determined by facial comparison through captures, and by comparison of clothing, by the analysis carried out that the subjects were Matías Benicelli, Enzo Comelli, Ciro Pertossi, Juan Pedro Guarino (dismissed) and Luciano Pertossi”, indicated Zamboni in the requisition.
Facial identification also made it possible to distinguish three of them in the McDonald’s international chain fast food location both on the ground floor (cash and delivery area and table hall) and the upper floor (table area).
“In said analysis, the filming was divided into sectors, and the individuals who kept facial characteristics with the indubitable individuals, being able to see Lucas Pertossi, Blas Cinalli and Máximo Thomsen there,” explains the elevation to trial.
The debate, which has been going on for more than a week, gathered more than 65 witnesses. At Wednesday’s hearing, the experts who carried out the DNA, chemical and blood tests on the blood stains on the clothes of the victim and those accused after the crime testified.
One of the key testimonies was that of César Guida, head of the Forensic Genetic Area of the North Institute of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Sciences of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In his statement, Guida assured that there was Blas Cinalli’s DNA on Fernando’s left little finger. In addition, he specified where the genetic material of Fernando Báez Sosa was found.
From his description it emerged that there were blood stains from the victim on four articles of clothing and three of the defendants’ shoes. Whose were they? It was the lawyer Fernando Burlando who gave the names and surnames to the owners of those clothes: Matías Benicelli, Ciro and Luciano Pertossi and Máximo Thomsen.
There are still six days left to finish exhibiting the tests.
