Lucía’s death occurred on the morning of October 8, 2016, in Mar del Plata. (Photo: Eva Cabrera)
The second trial of the two accused of raping and murdering the adolescent Lucía Pérez in the city of Mar del Plata in October 2016 will begin this Monday, and will last for at least two weeks, with the testimony of almost 50 witnesses. , judicial sources reported.
The new oral debate will take place before the Oral Court in the Criminal 2 (TOC) 2 of Mar del Plata, and the defendants, Matías Farías (29) and Juan Pablo Offidani (47), will not be present, since they will follow each hearing remotely from their places of detention.
Offidani and Farias are accused of the crime of “sexual abuse with carnal access, aggravated by the supply of narcotics followed by death in an ideal contest with femicide”.
Both will face this new trial, after the Buenos Aires Supreme Court confirmed a resolution of the provincial Court of Criminal Cassation, which annulled the acquittal for the crimes of sexual abuse and femicide issued in 2018 in a first oral debate before TOC 1.
The trial will take place before a new court, made up of judges Gustavo Fissore, Alexis Simaz and Roberto Falcone, with the prosecution in charge of prosecutor Leandro Arévalo, head of the Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) 7.
The lawyers Verónica Heredia and María Florencia Piermarini will intervene as a private individual, representing the parents of Lucía (16), Marta Montero and Guillermo Pérez, and her brother, Matías.
Offidani’s private defense will be in charge of César Sivo and Romina Merino, and Farías will be assisted by the official defender Laura Solari.
The hearings will take place at the TOC 2 headquarters, on the sixth floor of the local courts, and the trial is expected to last for at least two weeks, with an estimated sentencing date of March 1according to judicial sources.
The statement of 49 witnesses is scheduled, and in the first hearing the victim’s parents will do so, after the parties present their opening guidelines.
The two defendants will follow the trial remotely: Farías, from the Florencia Varela Penal Unit, and Offidani, from the Batán Prison Warden.
The development of the trial will also be followed from another room located on the second floor of the courts, where relatives of the accused and the victim will be present, and representatives of 11 organizations and entities involved
The opening and closing will also be broadcast through the YouTube channel of the Provincial Court, as occurred in the oral debate for the crime of Fernando Báez Sosa.
For security reasons, a fence was also set up in the vicinity of the local courts.
the first trial
During the first trial, held in November 2018, Farías and Offidani were sentenced to eight years in prison by judges Facundo Gómez Urso, Pablo Viñas and Aldo Carnevale, but only for selling drugs outside the school they attended. Lucia attended.
However, both were acquitted for the accusations of sexual abuse followed by death and femicide, but Chamber IV of the Buenos Aires Court of Cassation revoked both acquittals in August 2020, ordered the “nullity” of the first trial and ordered a new one to be held.
That resolution was confirmed a year later by the Provincial Court
Lucia’s death occurred on the morning of October 8, 2016and according to the hypothesis of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the adolescent had met the two defendants a day before, when they approached through a friend from the Mar del Plata Middle School 3 to sell her a marijuana cigarette.
The next day, Farías summoned the girl to her home on 4800 Racedo Street, in the southern part of the city, where she would have been drugged and abused to the point of death.
