Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN’S Supreme Court prosecutor is seeking a retrial for one of the most shocking cases in recent history.
The double murder in Almonte, Huelva, in 2013, saw an eight-year-old girl and her 39-year-old father butchered to death in their home.
The girl, Maria, was stabbed 104 times and her father, Miguel Angel Dominguez, 46.
But the main suspect in the case, known only as F.J.M, who was the ex-partner of the murdered girl’s mother, was acquitted by a jury in Huelva last year.
The jury voted eight against one in favour of acquittal, but the Prosecutor’s office is now seeking a retrial.
It argues there are ‘holes’ in the innocent verdict, according to sources close to the investigation.
And now it wants to analyse the entire case and determine whether or not the jury acted correctly.
The last word on a retrial will rest with the Criminal Chamber of the high court.
F. J. M, 34, had had a relationship with the mother of the girl who was brutally murdered in April 2013.
He worked in a supermarket with the mother and the father of the child, the other victim.
Police found F.J.M’s DNA on three towels in the house where the bodies were found.
Given the nature of the murders, investigators worked with the hypothesis that it was a crime of passion.
They predicted the murders lasted around 10 minutes.
The killer first stabbed the father as he came out of the shower.
He then killed the daughter, who was hiding in the kitchen after witnessing her father’s death.
F.J.M, the only suspect in the case, remained in prison between July 2015 and October 2017.
The Huelva Prosecutor’s Office requested a re-trial last November with a new jury and the annulment of the acquittal, but the Superior Court upheld the verdict.
The suspect denied committing the murders and claimed he was working when the killings occurred.
