A jury has found Raúl Díaz guilty of manslaughter for the killing of his wife Romina Celeste in Costa Teguise on New Year’s Eve 2018.
The jury in a Las Palmas court also convicted Díaz of habitual abuse, gender violence, desecration of a corpse and faking a crime. He will serve a prison sentence of 15 years and nine months.
The jury stated that, on several occasions, Díaz beat his wife and treated her with contempt, causing her severe distress. It stated that Díaz considered Romina “an inferior being” – a young immigrant woman who had turned to sex work to support herself – who he could take his anger out on.
Díaz, who failed to fully confess as to how how he killed his wife and what exactly he did with her body, used his final statement to the court to say “I apologise to her family, to mine and to all of society, although I don’t deserve pardon.”
Public representatives for the prosecution commented “This is not repentance, it’s theatre. He continues to act with the same coldness we’ve seen over the last three days.”
Emilia Zaballos, the lawyer for Romina’s family, also criticized Romina’s friends, saying “They didn’t bother to help her while she was alive and they haven’t bothered to do so when she was dead…If citizens know about illegal acts, they should report them.”
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