The judge of Instruction Court number 4 has ordered to reopen the investigation into the death of Isaac Martínez, murdered on November 9, 2006, in the Cappont neighborhood, in Lleida. The decision reactivates a case that is put back into motion eight months before the twentieth anniversary of the crime is met, a period that would mark the statute of limitations for the crime.
Isaac Martínez was 26 years old. He died after receiving seven shots when he was leaving a parking lot with his vehicle. The perpetrator was hooded and wearing a reflective vest.
The reopening comes after the family's request
The investigation resumes after the victim's family lawyer filed last November a request to reopen the case. The objective is to clarify if the sole suspect, who was acquitted at the time, could have used a firearm on the day of the events.
In that new phase, the magistrate has agreed to send an official letter both to the General Directorate of the Police and to the Civil Guard. The resolution asks the forensic services to re-examine several pieces of evidence linked to the cartridges located at the crime scene.
Analysis on the cartridges and metallic remains
Among the elements that the experts will have to study is the presence of tin particles in the primer of the cartridges. That material was not detected on the clothing of the investigated party, a circumstance that now once again places itself at the center of the case.
The judge requires that the specialists determine if that absence of tin on the clothing is compatible with the use of a firearm. She also requests that it be clarified if it is common for those cartridges to contain metals like tin even if they are not present in the gunpowder.
A case reactivated before the statute of limitations
The reopening occurs with eight months to go until the twentieth anniversary of the murder. That temporal horizon is key because the completion of those two decades since the crime would entail the statute of limitations for the crime.
With this judicial decision, the court again pushes forward some proceedings focused on the technical review of the ballistic evidence and on the possible relationship of the sole investigated person with the weapon used in the murder of Isaac Martínez in Cappont.