The main suspect in the triple murder in Chiloeches, Guadalajara, faces life imprisonment without parole

The Provincial Court of Guadalajara is hosting the jury trial for one of the most heinous crimes in Spain in recent years: the violent stabbing deaths of Laura, a 22-year-old woman, and her parents, Ángel Villar and Elvira Fernández, aged 52 and 53, at their family home in Chiloeches (Guadalajara) in April 2024. In the dock are three young men: the alleged perpetrator of the triple murder and two friends as possible accomplices.

The first, for whom the prosecution and the private accusation are seeking life imprisonment without parole, admits his guilt but his lawyer argues that the sentence is excessive and requests acquittal, claiming he acted under the influence of drugs.

In Tuesday's trial session, the only survivor of the massacre, the twin brother and son of the murdered, testified. According to his account, in the early hours of April 13, 2024, he was startled awake by screams and bangs. Upon getting up, "I saw my sister lying at the bottom of the stairs and then someone tried to enter my room but I blocked the door and escaped through my room's terrace," Yeray explained. Later, he jumped over the fence of the chalet and called the emergency number 112.

Also testifying on Tuesday was a friend of the accused who stated that the main suspect, Fernando Peña, had debt problems due to drugs, as well as Civil Guard officers who confirmed the presence of the three accused near the house on the day of the events through the positioning of their mobile phones.

The trial, which will continue until November 19, reconstructs what happened on April 13, 2024, in a detached house in the Medina Zahara urbanization of Chiloeches. That early morning, Fernando allegedly entered the house intending to steal valuable items such as luxury watches and jewelry, as well as money. He was armed with a bayonet and a knife and had information about the layout of the house because one of the accused, Cristian, was Laura's boyfriend. The father was awakened by the noise and encountered the thief, whom he knew, who stabbed him 29 times. He then killed the mother, who received 14 stab wounds, and the daughter, whose body had seven knife wounds. After securing a loot of several watches and jewelry, he fled, setting the house on fire to erase traces.

Hours later, security forces caught him and his accomplices, who had waited outside the home with a car, and who now also seek acquittal while the prosecution and the private accusation are requesting five years in prison for them for robbery with violence in an inhabited house and use of a weapon.