The Attorney General’s Office asked the 55th judge of Bogotá to impose a sentence of 60 years in prison against Jhonier Rodolfo Leal Hernández for his participation in the crime of his brother, the stylist Mauricio Leal; and his mother, Marleny Hernández, whose lifeless bodies appeared in the home they shared in the municipality of La Calera, Cundinamarca, on the night of November 21, 2021.
The prosecutor delegated to the Court, Mario Burgos, assured that in this case it is necessary to impose the maximum penalty contemplated in the Penal Code, warning that aggravating circumstances arose due to family relationship. Situation to which is added the brutality in which the facts were presented and the way in which they attempted to hide the material elements of evidence to modify the crime scene and make everything look like a suicide.
“If he attends to the postulates presented by this delegate in 450 months of prison for the murder of his mother plus 200 months of prison for the murder of his brother Mauricio Leal Hernández and complete in 720 months for a total of 60 years for the crime of concealment of evidentiary material elements,” explained prosecutor Burgos.
For the Attorney General’s Office, the defendant represents a high risk for society, which is why it requested that the proposals presented by Jhonier Leal’s defense be rejected, who requested that the lack of judicial record, his good conduct during the time he has been in prison, as well as his presence throughout the trial.
The 55th judge of knowledge, first thing in the morning, flatly rejected the request for annulment raised by the lawyer of theand Jhonier Leal, ensuring that from the first moment he has been given all the guarantees to exercise his full and adequate defense.
He has even been granted a public defender when the defendant stated that he did not have the financial resources to pay for a lawyer that would represent it. Likewise, he was allowed, in the preparatory stage, to request documentary and testimonial evidence that he considered relevant to demonstrate his theory of the case.
“It is not acceptable for the lawyer to allege the violation of fundamental rights,” the judge concluded. “The defender was guaranteed to propose the evidence, including the experts she requested.”
Jhonier Leal, who has been deprived of his freedom in La Picota prison in Bogotá since February 2022, is exposed to a sentence between 40 and 60 years in prison. The representatives of victims – his stepbrother and his uncles – have expressed the need to impose an “exemplary sentence.”
Even though in the middle of the hearing of charges, Leal acknowledged his responsibility for the events and even asked for forgiveness.subsequently signing a preliminary agreement in which a sentence of 37 years in prison was set, in an unprecedented action he retracted and announced that he wanted to declare his innocence in an oral trial.
After two years of trial, the judge found him responsible for the crimes of aggravated homicide and concealment of material evidence.
