The Provincial Court of Tarragona has sentenced almost five years in prison to one of the assailants of the drug raid committed in an apartment on Montsant avenue, in the Sant Salvador neighborhood of Tarragona. The sentence has been set after an agreement between the Prosecutor's Office and the defense for events that occurred in the early hours of October 21, 2019.
The judicial resolution places the start of the assault around 2:30 hours in a home in the Tarragona neighborhood. The members of the group first forced the entrance door and broke an adjoining glass pane to try to access the interior. As they did not succeed, they ended up entering through the kitchen window. The now convicted and another accomplice did so armed with knives.
Threats with knives and five hours of retention
Once inside the apartment, the assailants demanded money and cocaine from the victim and threatened to kill both her and her family. To intimidate her, they placed knives on her abdomen. The victim was held for about five hours.
The sentence states that an hour after the first entry into the dwelling, the convicted person left, although he returned at 6:00 in the morning. At that second moment, the involved parties again threatened the tenant with death and assaulted him with shoves, headbutts, kicks, and punches while demanding money, cocaine, and also a weapon from him.
At 7:30 AM they left the apartment, but before that they demanded that the victim give them 4,000 euros at 12:00 PM. Around 11:30 AM they contacted her again to demand that money and, upon not having the amount, they ordered her to go to a bakery.
New encounter on the street and return to the home
At midday, aggressors and victim met in the public street. There they forced the man to get into a vehicle. Inside the car they repeated the death threats against him and his family and demanded again that he get the 4,000 euros.
The pressure continued throughout the day. Around 3:30 p.m., the accused and other members of the group returned to the apartment in Sant Salvador carrying knives again. In that third action, they again intimidated the victim and again demanded the drugs and money.
Finally, the assailants took several marijuana plants, 1,000 euros in cash, two mobile phones, two televisions and a gym machine. The judicial resolution states that the victim left her home with an evident state of unease and fear.
A last attempt foiled by the Guàrdia Urbana
The sequence did not end there. Around 1:00 AM on October 22, some members of the group returned to the dwelling with the intention of taking the rest of the valuable objects. That last attempt was not carried out because they were surprised by a patrol of the Guàrdia Urbana.
The sentence specifies that two other individuals involved had already been convicted previously and that the rest of the group members have not been able to be identified. It also recalls that the now convicted individual had already been sentenced in 2016 to two years in prison for a violent robbery.
The imposed penalties
The Court imposes two years, one month and fifteen days of prison for robbery with violence in an inhabited house, in addition to one year, six months and one day for the same crime. To this are added six months for attempted robbery with force and ten months for illegal detention. The resolution adds a fine of 120 euros for a minor crime of injuries.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court prohibits him for eight years and ten months from communicating with the victim or approaching within 300 meters, a restraining order that seeks to prevent any new contact after an assault that lasted for hours in the Sant Salvador neighborhood.