The highest judicial body has dismissed the appeals filed by David José Roger Pérez, known as 'el Adoptado', and Juan Felipe Alemán Vega. This decision ratifies the previous ruling by the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), which had confirmed the convictions for the homicide of Italian citizen Andrea Costa.
Consequently, the sentences of 17 years in prison for David José Roger Pérez and Juan Felipe Alemán Vega, identified as the material perpetrators of the crime, remain in force. Additionally, Estefanía Pino Alemán Vega is to serve a sentence of seven years, six months, and one day for her role as an accomplice in the events.
The actions of the convicted individuals were characteristic of «conscious, calculating, and perverse» minds.
The established facts detail that on the night of September 11, 2021, the defendants and others left a Japanese restaurant in Playa del Inglés without paying, leaving the victim, Andrea Costa, who was later identified by the police. Later, at a residence in Vecindario, David José 'el Adoptado' and Juan Felipe Alemán Vega brutally assaulted Costa, punching and kicking him.
The judicial account further states that the assault continued in a room of the house, where, with the intent to end his life, they asked Estefanía Pino for a sheet. She, «knowing what was happening», provided pieces of cloth with which they tied the victim and strangled him, causing death by «mechanical asphyxia».
The Supreme Court has rejected the defense's arguments, which sought to reclassify the events as homicide or apply mitigating circumstances for confession or repentance. The Chamber has reaffirmed that the attack was «surprising and unexpected», preventing the victim's defense, and that treachery was «fully applicable to the case».
