At what age would John Poulos be released from prison after serving a sentence for the femicide of Valentina Trespalacios in Colombia?

“This man pretended to be the great gentleman and in reality he was not and that is why he set a trap for Valentina (…) he told her that they were going to live together and Valentina innocently got into that car because he had her convinced that they were going to get married and start a family and all that was a lie, he had no intention of staying here in Colombia.”

These were some of the words that Judge 10 Criminal Circuit with Knowledge Function of Bogotá delivered about the femicide of Valentina Trespalacios and with which he explained the actions of the American John Poulos in the young woman’s crime, which occurred in January 2023.

Regarding the crime, the Prosecutor’s Office provided several pieces of evidence, much of it on video, which shows how Poulos beat and suffocated Valentina in an apartment in the north of Bogotá.

He then “wrapped the body, hid it in a blue suitcase and abandoned it in a garbage container” in the town of Fontibón, near the El Dorado airport. Poulos subsequently fled Colombia, but was captured in Panama and immediately transferred to Bogotá.

The sentence for Poulos handed down by the judge was 512 months in prison (42 years and six months). In addition, he was disqualified from holding public office for 20 years and was prohibited from contacting or communicating with the victim’s relatives for the next 20 years.

Once Poulos completes his sentence he will be expelled from Colombia. The judge also chose not to grant him house arrest.

At what age would John Poulos be released from prison?

During the hearing, the judge dismissed Poulos’ defense: “Don’t tell us that it was manslaughter or unintentional homicide, it was a murder by submission.”

The judge even stated that “it is a matter of common sense, of logic; “You go to a doctor if he sees that the young woman is unconscious, but he doesn’t run to put her in a suitcase and throw her away.”