The Attorney General’s Office revealed this Thursday, November 6, the alleged motive that led to the murder of Jaime Esteban, a 20-year-old student at the University of Los Andes, who died after receiving a brutal beating in the early hours of October 31 in the north of Bogotá.
According to the testimony of a key witness presented during the hearing of the security measure against Juan Carlos, the women who accompanied the attackers shouted that the victim was ‘harassing women’, which would have motivated the fatal attack.
During the judicial proceedings, the prosecutor in the case released the statement of a person who was at the Oxxo establishment on 64th Street and 14th Street when the events occurred. This witness witnessed the exact moment when Juan Carlos, who arrived at the scene without a shirt and with his face painted red and black, dealt the first blow to Jaime Esteban.
The girls begin to yell at the boy, telling him: ‘Here you are so he can continue harassing women,'” the official from the accusing body said about what was stated by the eyewitness.
According to the testimony presented to the authorities, a friend of the witness approached the women accompanying the alleged aggressors to ask them what the reason for the violence was. The response was forceful: “He told her that the boy (Jaime Esteban Moreno) was harassing women.”
However, what the investigation revealed is that, after this first incident, the situation escalated dramatically. The victim tried to leave the scene, but it was at that moment that Juan Carlos, apparently encouraged by the women who accompanied him, decided to pursue him.
The defendant was the first to reach the victim and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Juan David, a friend of the deceased who was accompanying him that night after leaving the Before club in Chapinero, tried to intervene to stop the attack, but his efforts were useless.
Seconds later, the second attacker, identified as Ricardo González, who is currently a fugitive from justice, arrived at the scene and together they began to beat the victim.
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Images captured by surveillance systems show how Jaime Esteban and his accomplice repeatedly kicked the victim’s head and body while he lay helpless on the pavement. One of the women, dressed in a blue costume, even motivated the attackers to continue the beating.
A security guard who was in the area was the one who alerted the authorities when he noticed that the young man was choking on his own blood. Despite medical efforts, the student died due to severe head trauma caused by multiple blows.
Juan Carlos, a graduate of the same Universidad de Los Andes, was captured hours after the incident in flagrante delicto on 69th Street and 14th Street, thanks to the direct report of Juan David, the friend who witnessed the attack.
During the indictment hearing held on November 5, the defendant did not accept the charges of aggravated homicide as a co-author that were formulated against him.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested a sentence of between 40 and 50 years in prison for Suárez Ortiz, while the search continues for Ricardo González, who managed to escape after the crime.
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