A 26-year-old man identified as Alejandro Agustín Franco was sentenced to 25 years in prison for having committed the murders of Matías Iván Machuca and Maximiliano René Cistema. The illicit acts occurred in 2020 and 2022 in the northern area of the city of Santa Fe.
The sentence imposed on Franco was also for the authorship of an attempted murder against a man close to Cistema and for the illegal possession of a 22 caliber revolver.
The sentence was resolved by a court made up of Judge Cecilia Labanca (president) and judges Sebastián Szeifert and Pablo Busaniche within the framework of a trial in which the procedures were shortened.
The investigation was processed in the Special Homicide Prosecutor’s Unit of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office 1.
In the northern area
According to the MPA investigation, Machuca’s homicide was committed by Franco minutes before 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 29, 2020 in the vicinity of Mansilla and Excombatientes de Malvinas.
“The victim was at the scene arguing with another person,” reported prosecutor Gonzalo Iglesias, who represented the MPA at the hearing. “The convicted man arrived, intervened in the argument and intentionally shot Machuca in the chest with a firearm, who died minutes later as a result of the serious injuries caused by the attack,” he added.
In relation to the second homicide, at the hearing it was noted that it was committed around 1:00 p.m. on Friday, October 28, 2022.
“The convicted man was walking along Excombatientes de Malvinas Street, and before reaching the intersection with Paredes Street, he began shooting with a firearm at Cistema,” said the prosecutor. “The victim was shopping at a kiosk in the area, and upon realizing that he was being attacked, he ran across the street to take refuge in a house, however, he was shot, was transferred to the new Iturraspe Hospital and, Despite the medical care he received, he died as a result of the attack,” he said.
Finally, Iglesias also referred to the attempted murder for which Franco was convicted. “It was committed before the murder of Cistema, to the detriment of a man close to him,” he explained and added that “also with a firearm, the convicted man attacked the victim and hit him three times.”
“Despite the injuries he suffered, the attacked man was taken to the new Iturraspe Hospital, and then transferred to the José María Cullen hospital, where he saved his life thanks to the medical care he received,” the prosecutor stated at the hearing. “The crime was committed on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 around 2:30 in the morning in the vicinity of Excombatientes de Malvinas and Mansilla,” he indicated.
22 caliber revolver
Prosecutor Iglesias remarked that “after the first homicide that Franco committed, the corresponding criminal investigation was initiated, numerous procedures were carried out and the arrest warrant was issued.”
“Finally, the convicted man was arrested in September 2023 in a raid that was carried out in a house located in Monseñor Rodríguez at 6,900. A long 22 caliber revolver, suitable for shooting, was seized from him, fully loaded with six intact cartridges and without the corresponding documentation for its use,” the prosecutor concluded.
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Franco admitted his criminal responsibility as the author of the homicides in Machuca and Cistema, which were classified by the use of a firearm. Likewise, he expressly acknowledged his responsibility for the attempted murder of the person close to Cistema and for the improper possession of a firearm for civilian use.
The Defense, meanwhile, accepted the criminal attribution, the sentence imposed and the decision to shorten the trial procedures.
For their part, the man who survived the attack and the relatives of the two fatal victims expressed their agreement with the resolution.
