Jhonier Leal, sentenced to 55 years in prison for the murder of his brother, the hairdresser Mauricio Leal, and his mother

The murder of hairdresser Mauricio Leal, a famous stylist whose clients included celebrities, presenters and beauty queens, and his mother, Marleny Hernández, which occurred in November 2021, had its outcome this Friday. The 55th criminal judge of the Bogotá circuit has sentenced his brother, Jhonier Leal, to 55 years and 3 months in prison for the double homicide. The previous February he was found guilty of the crime, which aroused great media interest due to his brother’s fame, but also due to the calculated maneuvers with which the murderer attempted to manipulate his behavior in such a way that it would appear that the stylist had murdered their mother before committing suicide.

Leal followed the hearing virtually, from La Picota prison in Bogotá, after resigning through a letter to attend the Paloquemao courts in person. The prosecutor in the case, Mario Burgos, had requested in February a sentence of 60 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by Colombian legislation. During the extensive reading of the sentence, the judge explained the details of the crime and the reasons that prove the responsibility of the accused. She also insisted several times during the reading of the sentence on the implausibility of the fact that Mauricio Leal had murdered his mother before committing suicide and the implausibility of the fact that to do so he would choose such painful harm as wounding himself with a knife. . Apart from the 663 months in prison, Leal will have to compensate those affected by the crime with 250 current legal monthly minimum wages (325 million pesos).

The bodies of Mauricio Leal and their mother were found on November 22 in the bed of his house, in the municipality of La Calera, neighboring Bogotá. The scene indicated, at first glance, that the hairdresser had stabbed Hernández to death before ending his own life. There was little doubt if one thought that the stylist had also left a handwritten note: “I love you, forgive me, I can’t take it anymore. I leave everything to my nephews and brothers. All my love, forgive me mom.” Two months later, however, the authorities began to consider the possibility that, in reality, the same person had murdered them both, after forcing the stylist to write a false farewell.

Two months after the crime, the Prosecutor’s Office arrested Jhonier Leal, now 51 years old – he was one year older than his brother – who confessed his responsibility to that entity. When police detained him at his house, he found account numbers and property records. His goal was to inherit the properties of his dead brother, whose professional successes, which had taken him from jobs cleaning and sweeping in hair salons to national fame, contrasted with his lack of fortune in the projects he undertook and which often ended in failures.

Mauricio Leal amassed an enormous fortune that allowed him to indulge in great luxuries and own very expensive properties. The investigation into his murder led the authorities, in turn, to study the origin of all that money. The Prosecutor’s Office suspected that the stylist had ties to drug traffickers. That explained why he had three bank accounts open with more than $500,000. Over several months, about $50,000 was deposited into these accounts every day, which he then transferred to other banks. All of this heritage was subject to forfeiture by the authorities.

All of these characteristics, however unusual, aroused such media and citizen interest that, in March 2023, Netflix announced that filming was underway on a film in which the entire plot was told. On the following November 22, two years after the murder, it was released Story of a crime: Mauricio Leal, directed by filmmaker Jacques Toulemonde Vidal. The plot, however, continued to develop beyond what the fiction reflected.

Although Jhonier Leal had accepted being responsible for the double homicide, his defense presented in September 2023 the testimony of Francisca Teresa Muñoz, who pointed out another son of Hernández, Carlos Andrés García, as the author of the crime. According to Muñoz’s version, García held a grudge against his mother and his brother, who supposedly did not provide him with financial help. Furthermore, according to the testimony, García had expressed intentions to harm his mother and his brother. He, held in a prison in Jamundí (Valle del Cauca) for a different crime, rejected the accusation.

Jhonier Leal justified the change in his version due to alleged pressure he was receiving to plead guilty. However, as of September 2023, he continued to maintain his innocence. Last February, in addition, he accused the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Prosecutor’s Office of having overlooked several details of the investigation. Prosecutor Burgos responded by saying that the accusation was actually a delaying strategy by the accused’s defense. It didn’t work, because he was found guilty. Since then he was awaiting the 55-year sentence that was announced this Friday.

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