The boy murdered in the La Rioja municipality of Lardero on October 28, 2021, Álex, aged 9, died of suffocation after being allegedly sexually assaulted by Francisco Javier Almeida, who had been on probation since 2020, according to the La Rioja Prosecutor’s Office.
The Prosecutor’s Office announced this Tuesday its indictment against Almeida, for whom he requests a reviewable permanent prison sentence for a crime of murder and 15 years in prison for the crime of sexual assault (rape), which he will defend at trial set in Logroño for next March 20.
The prosecutor’s brief, in its provisional conclusions, details that, while the residents of the Lardero neighborhood where Almeida had lived since March 2020 celebrated the Halloween party and the children played in the square dressed up, the defendant went to one of them, Alex.
The minor was disguised in a mahogany-colored wig and a white tunic and had his face painted; to whom Almeida, under the pretext of requesting help to take care of a puppy that he assured him that he had in his house, convinced him to accompany him to his home.
Once in the portal, adds the public prosecution, Almeida asked him to go up the stairs while he took the elevator to the third floor and they both entered his apartment and directed him to his bedroom.
The prosecutor considers that the defendant, “moved by the sole desire to quench his lasciviousness”, undressed him, at least partially, held him tightly and forced him to perform fellatio.
“Then, and once his desire was satisfied, he immobilized the child by placing him on his back, at which time he seized him with his arm around the child’s neck, squeezing him tightly with the intention of causing death by suffocation,” he says.
It also points out that “the minor lacked any form of defense or request for help, dying of respiratory failure caused by the crushing cervical compression.”
Almeida, according to the prosecutor’s account, took the lifeless child in his arms, along with his shoes and wig and went to the stairs with the intention of taking him down to the garage and disposing of the body with his car.
However, he could not do this when he was surprised by the neighbors and the police who were looking for the minor.
The prosecutor also requests that Almeida be prohibited from residing in La Rioja for a period of 10 years greater than the time of the sentence and subjection to probation for 10 years, once the custodial sentences have expired.
Almeida, born in 1967, was sentenced to seven years in prison for a crime of sexual assault in January 1993; and, in November 2001, to 20 years in prison for a crime of murder and 10 for another of sexual assault.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
