Rodrigo Colihuinca He was 17 years old when he was last seen by his family on March 15, 2012. He left his home and never returned. After being missing for several hours, his body was found dismembered and decapitated in a vacant lot in Trelew.
The brutal crime remained unpunished for 12 years, until on May 28, Brian Muñoz, 29, showed up at a police station and confessed to being responsible for the teenager’s death. Later, and in a state of shock, he was admitted to the Mental Health area of the Trelew Hospital.
During the detention control hearing, he was sentenced to 3 months of preventive detention, after the prosecutor of the case stated that Muñoz – along with other people not yet identified – approached Rodrigo Colihuinca on March 15 and brutally murdered him.
Alert for snowfall and winds of more than 100 km/h in Chubut: which cities will be affected?
MUÑOZ KNEW THE DETAILS OF THE CRIME “FOR THE NEWS”
Facundo Bonavitta, Brian Muñoz’s defense attorney requested the release of his client, arguing that there is not enough evidence to keep him in preventive detention.
Speaking to Radio 3, the lawyer said that his client knew details of the case because they were made public, and not because he was involved in the crime. “What he said, he said because it was publicly known,” he said in relation to the information published in print and television media about the homicide.
A family from Comodoro went missing with a two-year-old child during the snow storm in Patagonia
“That is why we are now requesting a review of this preventive detention, because it is not true that a person who was involved in the incident could have known this. Anyone could have known this, as I said, even in the province, because these characteristics appeared in the media in Comodoro Rivadavia the day after the incident,” he added.
Finally, Bonavitta said that his client confessed to the crime while in a mentally disturbed state due to drug use. “We are at the disposal of the prosecution and in case this serves to obtain new elements, we are at their disposal. But we do not agree with the use of a scapegoat to satisfy society’s state of anxiety by keeping Muñoz in custody,” he said.
