“What interest did Alfonso Basterra have in his daughter dying?”, is the question with which Belén Hospido, Alfonso Basterra’s lawyer, closed her final conclusions. Basterra was accused of the murder of his adopted daughter, Assunta Basterra Porto, with his ex-wife Rosario. They were accused of having plied her with pills for weeks to end up drowning her and dumping her body in a nearby forest. Both were convicted of this crime, however at the time of the trial they still tried to prove their innocence.
In Basterra’s case, his lawyer defended his presumption of innocence, alleging that there was no motive for him to carry out this crime. “My client is here precisely because this can only be explained if it was a matter of two”Hospido denounced, criticizing that he was only accused because there was no way the mother could have done it alone and he was the closest person.
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About the tablets, did admit that his client bought Orfidal “on three occasions”, but they were only for his ex-wife, Rosario. For this she did the math. 125 tablets in total. Until Asunta’s death, the doctor prescribed him “half, half and one” daily, so he consumed 80 pills. In the following days the dose increased to four or five per day, which would total 101 pills. Then there would only have been 24 pills left, which are the ones he gives to Rosario in prison. “Where is the collection?” she asked, explaining that she couldn’t get the accounts. 27 doses that were given to Asunta.
Another of the indications that the defense addressed is the issue of the food that Basterra cooked on September 21, the day of the event. She alleged that it was impossible for the pills to have been ingested at said meal, since if that had been the case, the girl would have been “semicomatose”. Instead, he walks past Bankia’s camera, which for Hospido showed that there was “no conclusive proof” that it happened before.
“Having an alibi is not an obligation”, the lawyer wanted to express, recounting that that day Basterra simply “cooked meatballs, made a cream, read a book…”. However, she explained, that according to her version of events, it was impossible for her to have been in Teo, where the girl died.
To end his defense, Hospido described Basterra as a “very intelligent” journalist who nevertheless meets the profile of a housewife. An exemplary behavior, which conditioned his professional future to dedicate himself to his spouse and his daughter, “and despite that he leaves home without asking for anything”when they both get divorced.
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“It wasn’t easy to go from everything to nothing and the feelings don’t end overnight, but no one tells us that he was a bad father or aggressive towards the girl. What interest did Alfonso Basterra have in his daughter dying? What Basterra has left on September 21 is her daughter. Alfonso, without the girl, at that moment, is left with nothing. Do those cell phones they tell us really exist?”, concluded the lawyer, whose allegations were not enough to save her client from conviction.
