The day after tomorrow, the colorist Luis Abel Guzmán He will begin to be tried for the murder of his co-worker, the stylist German Gabriel Medinawhich occurred on March 20, 2024 in the Verdini hair salonfrom the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta. The accused requested a trial without media coverage and to support his request he compared himself to Jesus Christ.
This was stated by Guzmán’s defense lawyers, Claudio Severino and Ricardo Sanetti, in a presentation made before the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) of Buenos Aires No. 24, which will be in charge of the oral and public debate.
“This private defense invokes in its entirety the scope of the second paragraph of article 364 (of the National Criminal Procedure Code) regarding the order, morality and decorum that must be had during the debate, energetically expressing plain and simple opposition to the journalistic presence within the Court’s Hearing Room. It is enough to raise your eyes to the crucifix that presides over your Hall and remember the ridicule that our Lord Jesus Christ already suffered when he was crucified. All virtual, audiovisual and written media journalism has behaved in the same way, going so far as to anticipate sentences and anticipate rulings regarding our procedural godson, before and after his arrest.“, the lawyers maintained in the aforementioned presentation.
Guzmán’s defense lawyers also made a mention of the dismissed judge of San Isidro Juliet Makintachwho last year intervened in the trial where possible criminal responsibilities for the death of Diego Maradonawhich was finally declared null and void when it was discovered that the judge was participating in the production of a documentary that intended to tell the alternatives of the debate.
“The professional commitment of this particular defense is with our assistant, the court, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the complaints. It is enough to bring Judge Makintach as an example to see how in the name of the despised right to information – which is not absolute – the prestige and good name of judges and auxiliaries of Justice have been tarnished,” the lawyers explained in their writing, as revealed by the news site. TN.
Sources from TOC N°24 told THE NATION that, in principle, the media would only be allowed to take images in the moments before the debate began and that it would not be possible to take note of what happens in the debate, but they also invited journalists to be accredited.
Guzmán, 45 years old, is detained and is serving preventive detention in the Federal Penitentiary Complex I, in Ezeiza. He was caught by the City Police in Moreno’s district after having been on the run for 70 days.
“No relationship conflict merits the deployment of an attack on the life of a human being. I consider that the motive for the murder of Germán Gabriel Medina would be a matter of jealousy, hatred and professional resentment”the national Criminal and Correctional Judge Javier Sánchez Sarmiento opportunely stated when he prosecuted Guzmán with preventive detention for the crime of homicide aggravated by treachery in real competition with aggravated illegal deprivation of liberty.
The magistrate also stated: “The accused had full knowledge and will of the homicidal action that he was going to deploy against Medina at around 8:08 p.m. on March 20, for which he had selected the means. Indeed, on the day of the incident, Guzmán took a firearm among his belongings to his workplace, he kept it in a place where he left his personal things, he waited until there were no clients, he locked up his colleagues without their initially realizing it, and He then shot his victim, who was sitting and totally defenseless, in the head.”.
In the request for elevation to trial, when substantiating the aggravating circumstance of treachery, the prosecutor Patricio Lugones He said that Medina “was not in a position to defend himself,” that Guzmán “took full advantage of the victim’s defenseless situation” and that he executed the young man “in a treacherous manner.”
On the day of the homicide, Guzmán, 43, arrived at 10:15 at the hair salon where he had worked for more than eight years. He served two clients who were already waiting for him. At 1:00 p.m. he took his backpack and left without saying anything. He returned an hour later.
After serving his last client, he went to the restaurant’s kitchen without speaking to any of his colleagues, “with whom he had a conflict, mainly, because of his smoothing work with formaldehyde, a substance prohibited due to its toxic effects, which the named person did not stop using despite the warnings of his peers, causing discomfort in the work environment.”
In the afternoon, around 5:00 p.m., Guzmán invited Carlos Alberto Azorín, the manager of the hair salon, to have coffee. They went to a place located in Austria and Juncal. “I’m tired, I need peace of mind, it doesn’t matter to me, I need to finish the issue today, I’m going to talk to the owner”the murderer told him.
According to the testimonies included in the case, Guzmán was going to be fired imminently from the Verdini hair salon, “a circumstance known to the accused, who wanted to resolve the ‘problem’ that same day.”
The hairdresser and the manager of the establishment returned to the hairdressing salon at 6:00 p.m. “Guzmán sat on one of the chairs facing the street and asked Azorín to cut his hair. Although he initially cut his hair on the sides, the accused asked him to shave it; ‘That’s how I look crazier’he said,” according to the reconstruction recorded in the court file.
At 20, Guzmán began his criminal task. He went to the product display located in the front of the hair salon, took the keys to the premises, lowered the blinds, closed the entrance door and put the keys away.
His co-workers, including Medina, Azorín, Noelia Palazzo and the owner of the hair salon, Facundo Verdini, chatted and drank beer.
Guzmán approached Verdini and asked him: “Do you have something to tell me?”. The owner of the premises responded: “No, tomorrow we will talk”. It was at that moment that the murderous hairdresser took out the weapon that he had hidden in his waist, under his clothes, and blurted out to them: “Stay still because I will blow all four of your heads off.”.
Then he visualized Medina, who was still, sitting in an armchair, he aimed it directly at his head and shot him. “The victim was left lying on one of the armrests of the chair, dying,” Judge Sánchez Sarmiento recalled.
Verdini went to lock himself in the bathroom. Palazzo stood up to move away and Guzmán snapped: “Don’t be afraid, nothing will happen to you.”.
Azorín raised the blinds of one of the windows, Guzmán jumped and fled down Beruti, towards Austria Street.
The murderous hairdresser of Recoleta He was on the run for 70 days. He was arrested by the City Police in Moreno’s party, after A witness with a confidential identity called the complaint line 134 of the Ministry of National Security and provided precise information about where Guzmán was.
“The accused premeditated each and every one of the necessary movements to carry out his criminal plan, he obtained a firearm, chose the day on which he knew that his colleagues were going to stay in a meeting at the premises, he locked everyone present in the hair salon and, safely, he killed his defenseless companion Medina, with whom he had particular suspicion. Then he fled by jumping out of the window of the premises and remained a fugitive for 70 days,” said Judge Sánchez Sarmiento when prosecuting Guzmán.
