The Attorney General’s Office filed this Tuesday, June 2, the document in which it requested before the judges with a guarantee control function the indictment for the crime of culpable homicide against Emely Fuentes and Danny Javier Ochoa, named in the case of the girl Valeria Afanador.
After the new details of the case became known, EL TIEMPO’s Bogotá section spoke with the criminal law specialist lawyer Gildardo Acosta, who explained that culpable homicide “is one in which there is no intention to commit the punishable act or to cause the death of a person, but even so, the death occurs.”
For this reason, the lawyer indicated that for people who commit this type of crime, the penalty can range from 32 to 108 months in prison, sanctions which, as he explained, “are ultimately eligible for release.”
The jurist also announced that the two people involved can be fined an economic penalty ranging from 26 to 150 current legal monthly minimum wages.
In this regard, Acosta pointed out that, to determine the eventual conviction of the people involved, the Prosecutor’s Office is expected to explain to the judge what actions would constitute the crime of culpable homicide.
Similarly, Gildardo Acosta also clarified that this will depend on the decision a judge makes when issuing the sentence, once the circumstances of the facts are determined.
“It’s not just saying: ‘You killed, you did or you didn’t do,’ but explaining why we talk about culpable homicide, what the objective duty of care was, and what happened,” he stated.
What role would the teacher and the school’s head of security have played?
In mid-January, the lawyer for Valeria Afanador’s family announced that Emely Viviana Fuentes Hernández (the girl’s course director in charge) “failed in her functional duties of surveillance and control regarding the minor, allowing her to leave the classroom without timely activating the required protection mechanisms.”
Regarding Danny Javier Ochoa (the school’s head of security), the institution’s lawyer explained that he is not related to the investigated facts, stating: “He is indeed linked to the school and is a purchasing coordinator, but he has no relation to these events and well, we will face this situation as appropriate.”
School lawyer spoke about a conciliation
EL TIEMPO also spoke with Francisco Bernate, the lawyer for Gimnasio Campestre Los Laureles school, who reported on the existence of prior approaches between the parties to try to resolve the case through conciliation.
Bernate revealed that approximately 15 days ago, a hearing promoted by the family of the girl Valeria Afanador had been held, in which a figure was proposed that the institution considered impossible to assume.
“The family’s claims are for 11 billion pesos, so it’s a situation to which there is no way to respond (…) We can’t do much about that,” he stated.
Regarding the high sum of money that the minor’s family would have requested, the jurist Gildardo Acosta indicated that “exaggerated sums are not allowed in Colombian legislation either,” although he clarified that “the serious, very serious, and irreparable harm caused to victims by the loss of the minor” must be taken into account.
However, he added that “the Council of State has established jurisprudence in some cases regarding the limits from which one can start to set compensation.”
Regarding how the amount of money for compensation is determined, Acosta explained to EL TIEMPO that this calculation is based on “an analysis of the deceased person and a projection of how many years a female person could live in Colombia, in addition to who the victim was.”
Laura Daniela Alarcón
BOGOTÁ NEWSROOM
