Two apartment owners, members of the criminal gang ‘Los Bets’, in Neiva, were sentenced to eight years in prison. The ruling was issued by the Superior Court of Neiva when revoking the acquittal ruling that favored Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona and Jhonatan Vargas Roa. “The evidence is sufficient to obtain…the existence of the fact and responsibility,” the magistrates said.
Rafael Rodríguez C.
Two apartment owners who were part of the criminal gang ‘Los Bets’, in the city of Neiva, who had been acquitted, were convicted in the second instance by the Superior Court of Neiva.
The decision was adopted by the magistrates of the Third Criminal Decision Chamber of the high court, when resolving the appeal filed by the Prosecutor’s Office against the sentence of the Fifth Criminal Court of Neiva, in which Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona and Jhonatan were acquitted Vargas Roa.
The Neiva Metropolitan Police, in coordination with the Prosecutor’s Office, carried out the investigation against the ‘criminal enterprise’, after establishing through a source that a group of people were dedicated to theft in different modalities.
“The criminal gang called ‘Los Bets’ was composed of Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona, Jhonatan Vargas Roa and Carlos Fabián Perdomo Olaya, among other individuals,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in the indictment.
He added that the organization perpetrated residential robbery, in which one of the members entered the home, using violence, and removed valuable objects in a black bag, subsequently fleeing on motorcycles and sometimes in a taxi driven by another of the members. members.
In addition, they robbed people by force using knives and firearms and sometimes “used a minor.”
He pointed out that within the gang, Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona, was the person in charge of transporting the stolen items using a taxi. While Jhonatan Vargas Roa, alias ‘Fliky’, was in charge of planning and executing the robberies at residences. He “performed the activity of entering the homes and taking possession of the elements, on some occasions he played the role of bell ringer.”
‘Doubts about the role assigned to Billi’
The Fifth Criminal Court of the Neiva Circuit with Knowledge Functions, upon studying the evidence brought to oral trial by the Prosecutor’s Office, decided last March 2024 to acquit Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona and Jhonatan Vargas Roa.
The judge criticized the legal classification of the crimes committed against the defendants, pointing out that the Prosecutor’s formulation of the accusation is “extensive and generic, it omits to discriminate the legal reasons and the circumstances of aggravation… there is a lack of presentation of legally relevant facts individually due, with the aggravating circumstances complained of. It announces analyzing only qualified theft and excluding aggravating circumstances from it.”
Regarding the crime of conspiracy to commit a crime by Billi Jhoanht, the judge stated that the Prosecutor’s Office failed to fulfill the burden of providing certainty beyond all doubt regarding the materiality of the conduct and criminal responsibility, a requirement met for Jhonatan Vargas Roa.
Of the victims, the togada highlighted the lack of direct knowledge of those responsible for the theft, as well as the identity or roles of the perpetrators. “They only affirm the attack against their assets, the complaints filed and the value of the damage caused. It is impossible to extract from their reports the prior concertation of the accused to perpetrate the accused crimes.”
According to one of the Sijin investigators who was behind the gang, on March 15, 2019, at 5:52 pm a call was made between Harold and ‘Morocho’, where a citizen requested a taxi transportation service. driven by Billi. According to telephone interventions, it is for the transportation of the stolen items.
From those same telephone lines and that same day at 5:55 pm, Harold asks the taxi driver to arrive at the place where the robbery was committed. At 6:29 pm, Harold called Maria, the latter tells her to be careful with the authorities. While Harold confirms that she is in the taxi driven by Billi. “Billo provides the transportation service for the members of the gang and the stolen items, as later help,” said the investigator.
The judge, when studying the investigator’s statement, pointed out that the evidence is insufficient to support the conspiracy to commit a crime, in relation to Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona. “The prosecution witnesses only accuse Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona of transporting a group of people who were perpetrators of robberies, without establishing the modal and specific conditions of the prior agreement required by the criminal offense charged,” the togada explained.
He maintained that the Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to reporting on the existence of a modus operandi consisting of theft from residences and the activity of transporting stolen items, explained nothing about the multiple events that posed a danger to public tranquility. “Although in no way is the commission of the planned conduct within the concert required by typical autonomy, the possibility of materialization of the multiple activities being planned must be verifiable, facts that were not even the subject of manifestation in court.”
He stated that he never found out in the interceptions who was the leader of the criminal gang with coordination instructions, with Billi Jhoanth in particular. Furthermore, for the judicial operator, the conversation raises doubts about the role assigned to Billi Jhoanth as a transporter for the criminal gang.
The judge, by not establishing the agreement of wills and the affinity between the leadership of the band ‘Los Bets’ and the accused Billi Jhoanth Mendoza Cardona with the assignment of roles, acquits him of the crimes of conspiracy, qualified theft and use of minors for the commission of crimes “because the presumption of innocence that protects them remains intact.”
“Clear and credible statements”
The prosecutor in the case appealed the judge’s decision, pointing out that it demonstrated that, during 2019, there was a criminal gang dedicated to committing theft from residences, of which Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona, alias ‘Taxista’, and Jhonatan Vargas Roa, were part. alias ‘Fliky’, among others.
He points out that Vargas Roa’s job was to go out on his motorcycle to look for vulnerable homes, verify the absence of its residents, break into the doors and windows to enter and steal. Meanwhile, by telephone they had communication with the ‘bell ringers’ to whom they reported the loot, they received information about the presence of people or authorities in the place. He maintains that Mendoza Cardona transported the stolen items in the taxi driven by him.
He maintained that he proved the participation of the two subjects with the statement of the criminal communications analyst, who received and analyzed the telephone conversations “used by Harold Ernesto Montealegre Díaz through which he contacts the other members to plan and execute the crimes, identifying the day, time and place. Same interception on Billi Jhoanth Mendoza Cardona’s line.”
The prosecutor considers that, with the testimonies of the investigation leader, the interceptions analyst, the field investigator reports and the audios played in the oral trial, they are sufficient to “dethrone” the presumption of innocence of Billi Jhonath Mendoza Cardona in the crime of conspiracy to commit a crime, “due to demonstrating the role of transporter of the stolen items, under the guise of acting as a taxi driver, from which he obtained economic benefit.”
He added that the responsibility of Jhonatan Varga Roa in the crime of theft has been proven, established with the statements of witnesses, including one of the victims, the investigator and the analyst.
Qualify the statements of the victim and witnesses as concentrated, firm, forceful, absent of ambiguities, clear and credible. Furthermore, he insisted on having proven that Billi Jhonath Mendoza Cardona took advantage of his job as a taxi driver “in transporting the stolen items.”
Regarding Jhonatan Varga Roa, he mentioned having taken advantage of the absence of the victims to enter their homes; Furthermore, in other events he would alert his accomplices to raid the residences. “The audios show Jhonatan’s entry or proximity to the places where the robberies were carried out…” said the prosecutor.
Sufficient evidence to revoke
The judges of the Superior Court of Neiva, upon resolving the appeal proposed by the Prosecutor’s Office against the decision of the Fifth Criminal Court of the Neiva Circuit in which it acquitted Billi Jhoanht Mendoza Cardona and Jhonatan Vargas Roa, partially revoked it.
The defendants stated that the crime of conspiracy to commit a crime against Billi Jhoanth Mendoza Cardona is proven with the statement of the communications analyst. “He reports the details of the investigation and the telephone interceptions carried out on the line of the leader of the criminal organization, Harold Montealegre, known by the name ‘Ojitos’.”
They pointed out that the communication of the members of the criminal gang ‘Los Bets’, on several occasions, with Mendoza Cardona, to transport the stolen items to them, is evident. “The interweaving of calls is inconclusive (undeniable)…”
Regarding the criminal responsibility of Jhonatan Vargas Roa, alias ‘Fliky’, he refutes the fact that it has been established beyond all reasonable doubt that he participated in the theft perpetrated on March 23, 2019 at the residence in the Villas del Sol neighborhood. “Because in the interception of “At 11:38 am, the interlocutors claim that he left the residence without taking anything.”
However, the judges stated that contrary to what the judge stated, that fact could be proven by the victim’s statement. “She asserted that some subjects entered through the window of her room, bent the protective bars to steal two 34- and 45-inch televisions, a sound system, jewelry, a Totto bag, eight pairs of shoes, clothing, appliances and other objects valued at $3,500,000.”
For the judges of the High Court, the victim’s statement allows them to establish that Jhonatan Vargas Roa violated the bars of the house, to loot it together with his accomplices.
The magistrates specified that the evidence is sufficient to obtain knowledge beyond all evidentiary doubt about the existence of the fact and the responsibility of both Billi Jhoanth Mendoza Cardona in the crimes of conspiracy and qualified theft, and Jhonatan Vargas Roa as the author. of the crime of theft. “For this reason, the decision under appeal regarding these crimes will have to be revoked.”
They pointed out that Mendoza Cardona is sentenced to eight years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified theft and conspiracy to commit a crime. While Vargas Roa was sentenced to eight years in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified theft. “Deny the conditional suspension of the execution of the sentence and house arrest. The corresponding arrest warrant is issued by the secretariat.”
