Gerardo Alonso Ríos Mairena, a 34-year-old bricklayer, was sentenced to 216 years in prison for the murder of five university students, which occurred in the La Victoria neighborhood of Liberia in Guanacaste.
In the trial against the subject, which began on January 22nd, the Deputy Prosecutor’s Office of Liberia requested a total of 215 years in prison: 35 for each qualified homicide, 35 for an attempted homicide requalified for malice aforethought, and five for sexual abuse to the detriment of the person of legal age.
Meanwhile, Francisco Herrera, Ríos’ attorney, asked for his acquittal, saying that the crime scene had been contaminated and therefore much of the evidence provided was spurious.
Therefore, the sentence was read this Tuesday, after 8:00 a.m., by the judges Guillermo Arce, Kathy Abarca Serrano, and Andrea Rodríguez Ulate.
The victims were university students Joseph Briones Solís (22 years old), Dayana Martínez Romero (24 years old), Stephanie Hernández García (22 years old), Ingrid Massiel Méndez Serrano (24 years old) and Ariel Vargas Condega (24 years old).
A 14-year-old minor survived the attack and served as the main witness to point to Ríos as the perpetrator. The judges credited her testimony as a key piece for the sentence.
The subject sexually abused Ingrid Massiel. She was found half-naked, with the shorts on her legs and the straps of her blouse torn.
There was a sexual fixation on her. He probably spied her from the window,”
said Aymee Caravaca, deputy prosecutor of Liberia, during the conclusions stage developed last Friday.