Supreme Court rejects appeals and confirms harsh sentences against community members for triple homicide of police officers

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals for nullity filed in the triple homicide of police officers and confirmed the harsh sentences against the four community members convicted for the crime that occurred in Cañete, Bío Bío region.

While the Prosecutor's Office welcomed the ruling, Nicolás Rivas's defense highlighted that the decision regarding his client was split.

By unanimous vote of the ministers of the Criminal Chamber of the High Court, the appeals of the brothers Felipe, Jefferson, and Tomás Antihuén were rejected, and therefore, the request for a retrial was denied.

As a result, the sentences of qualified life imprisonment handed down by the Oral Court of Cañete are final. In the case of community member Nicolás Rivas, the 17-year prison sentence as an accomplice in the homicides was upheld, although with a split vote since two ministers favored accepting the nullity and ordering a new trial.

The regional prosecutor of La Araucanía, Roberto Garrido, who led the investigation, stated that the ruling confirms the weight of the evidence presented at trial, which allowed for clarifying and punishing responsibilities for this horrendous crime.

"It was an extremely complex process, with many difficulties. Fortunately, the coordinated work between the prosecutor's offices of Bío Bío and La Araucanía, along with specialized personnel from Carabineros and other state agencies, allowed us to overcome these difficulties and obtain solid evidence that established the dynamics of the events and left no doubt about the involvement of those convicted in this case," Garrido explained.

For his part, the defense attorney for community member Rivas Paillao, lawyer Marco Ñanculeo, expressed his disagreement with the Supreme Court's ruling, although he emphasized that only three judges, not the five of the Criminal Chamber, rejected the appeal.

"This is a decision that, frankly, completely discourages us, since we had hoped that the High Court would accept some of the grounds presented by this defense in the appeal. Without prejudice to that, it is worth noting that this is a split ruling, as I mentioned, it is not a unanimous decision, unlike the other co-defendants," Ñanculeo stated.

The High Court's decision thus brings to a close the case opened after the execution of police officers Misael Vidal, Sergio Arévalo, and Carlos Cisterna, whose widows were informed of the sentence by prosecutor Garrido himself.

Source:BiobioChile