The murder of Helena Jubany will be judged 25 years later: the judge sends Santi Laiglesia to the dock

BarcelonaThe death of Helena Jubany, murdered in 2001, will go to trial more than two decades later. The judge in Sabadell who is instructing this case has decided to send Santi Laiglesia to trial, a lawsuit that will be heard by a popular jury at the Barcelona Court. This decision cannot be appealed, according to judicial sources, and will lead Laiglesia to sit in the dock. In the document, the judge concludes that there are "rational indications of criminality" against Laiglesia.

This Friday, a session was held at the Sabadell courts in which the Public Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecution – representing the Jubany family – requested the opening of the trial against the now sole suspect in this case. The investigating judge had three days from this Friday to decide whether or not to open an oral trial, but a few hours later it transpired that she opted for the former. In the same document, the judge archives the case for Xavi Giménez, also initially investigated for this crime.

In statements to journalists collected by Efe after this Friday's hearing, Joan Jubany, the victim's brother, said he hopes the trial will be held as soon as possible, "without further delay," and added that the family only seeks "to know the truth." During this session at the courts, Laiglesia tried to defend himself by questioning precisely the main evidence pointing to him: his DNA found on the sweater the victim was wearing on the day she died. His defense maintains that the chain of custody for this piece of clothing was not maintained and that there could have been indirect contamination.

The facts

In her writing, however, the judge rebuts that this biological finding would allow placing the suspect at the scene of the events and at the precise moment of Jubany's death. In a brief resolution of nine pages, the instructor describes with precision what would have happened on December 2, 2001: "At an indeterminate moment, but in any case prior to 4:45 hours, one or several people administered benzodiazepines to Helena Jubany, consciously and in the necessary quantity to prevent her from having physical and mental capacity. Subsequently, and taking advantage of her absolute incapacity, they transported her to the roof of the building located at 48 Calvet Estrella Street in Sabadell, and from there, acting in any case with the intention of ending her life or at least with knowledge of the high probabilities that this conduct would end her life, they threw her into the void, and caused her death due to the trauma caused by the fall".

Just after this paragraph, the judge already refers directly to Santi Laiglesia, "of legal age and without a criminal record, there are indications that he actively participated in all or some of the described acts, and at all times had the capacity not to carry them out or to prevent them". Thus, Laiglesia will be tried for the crimes of murder and illegal detention. In the same document, the judge maintains the accused in provisional liberty, but also the precautionary measures of passport withdrawal, prohibition of leaving Spain, and appearances at the court once a month.

The last attempt

This Friday morning, before the judge's decision was made public, Laiglesia's lawyer, Jaime Lapaz, explained that he has asked the courts to commission a report from the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC) to review the National Police report that incriminated the accused. The defense considers it inconclusive regarding his DNA remains. In a final attempt to avoid trial, Lapaz insisted that the chain of custody for Jubany's sweater was broken, and argued that it was not sealed correctly after the initial analyses conducted following the crime. Furthermore, the defense poses the hypothesis that Laiglesia once worked at a law firm where he could have had access to the sweater, which could have led to indirect and involuntary contamination at that time. Despite everything, the judge did not consider these arguments solid enough to avoid trial.

Conversely, the Public Prosecutor's Office—like the private prosecution—has ratified its indictment, in which it requests 26 years in prison for Laiglesia. The public ministry attributes an "active participation" in the crime to the suspect: it maintains that one or more people administered narcotics to Jubany in the early hours of December 2, 2001, and, taking advantage of her "absolute inability" to defend herself or flee, took her to a rooftop, from where they threw her into the void. It is, therefore, a narrative similar to the one issued by the judge this Friday afternoon.

Two decades later

It has taken two decades to reach the opening of the trial for the crime of Helena Jubany. In 2005, the case was provisionally archived due to a lack of evidence, but the victim's family litigated in the courts until they managed to have the case reopened, shortly before its statute of limitations. At that moment, the court ordered new biological analyses which, with current technology, which is more advanced, have allowed unpublished evidence to be brought to light.

Since 2001, there have been four suspects in the case: Montse Careta, Santi Laiglesia, Xavi Jiménez, and Ana Echaguibel. In mid-2022, it emerged that forensic police had found DNA samples from at least two people on the sweater the victim was wearing the day she was murdered, one of which matched Laiglesia. The other sample could not be identified and does not match the DNA of the other people who had been investigated in the past. This evidence ended up putting Laiglesia in the spotlight.

Laiglesia was the partner of Montse Careta, whom the first judge of the case sent to prison preventively, where she committed suicide. Careta lived in the apartment building from which the victim was thrown into the void, and the accused spent a good part of the nights with her. All three were part of the same group from the Sabadell Hiking Union, to which Jiménez and Echaguibel also belonged.