A year after the death of Efraín Ruales, no sentence has been passed and the 8 involved face different processes

A year ago the news of the murder of Efraín Ruales shocked the country. It happened on the morning of January 27, 2021 on a street in the north of Guayaquil. The television presenter was leaving a gym.

The case has been addressed by three prosecutors, one of whom even received a death threat. In the file there are more than 2,800 pages with information collected in the tax investigation stage.

Throughout the process, eight people have been involved. There are six detainees in the Penitentiary, a fugitive and a minor involved who has a separate process and is at home with police protection.

There is no one convicted or one person identified as the mastermind. On February 1, the trial hearing is reinstated. It is the sixth reinstatement. In this case, more than 60 people have been called as witnesses. Most of the witnesses are policemen who participated in the survey and in the investigation and who have explained to the court how each piece of evidence was obtained.

Friends and relatives of Ruales were also summoned to give testimonies. The brother of the deceased was the first day of hearing and said he did not know anything.

The lawyers and the Prosecutor’s Office hope that on February 1 the judges will deliberate and make a decision on the adults prosecuted for the presenter’s crime.

The motivation of the crime is uncertain

Of the cause of the crime, the Prosecutor’s Office has not given an official version. In the first months, versions were considered that Ruales was attacked for criticizing the acts of corruption committed at the beginning of the pandemic on his social networks.

But when the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office studied the victim’s bank movements in 2018, 2019 and 2020, in three financial entities, and it was determined that they add up to more than 600,000 dollars, the prosecutors began to investigate whether the murder was gave for money

But who are the defendants and what evidence does the Prosecutor’s Office have?

For the death of Ruales there are eight defendants: seven adults and one minor. Cases are handled separately. Álvaro C., alias Alvarito, and Alexis C., aka Casquete (direct authors); Carlos M, aka Corn (mediate author); Karla M. (co-author); Jordan V., alias Fast; Aarón A. and Juan Carlos Redrován (accomplices).

According to the versions, the first days of 2021, Jorman V., alias Fast, 21, would have received a call from prison to plan an attack against Efraín Ruales and summon those who attacked the presenter. He ordered to steal the car and got the weapon, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

The person who contacted Jorman V., according to the file, would be Carlos M., known as Corn, who is one of the leaders of the Los Lagartos gang. From the Litoral Penitentiary, the Prosecutor’s Office presumes that Corn called Veloz to order the crime.

The Prosecutor’s Office explained that Juan R. is being prosecuted for having stolen the blue Vitara car on January 6 in Guayacanes, used to monitor and kill Ruales three weeks later. Juan R. was arrested in May. He would also have changed the license plate of the car for a cloned one that belongs to a similar car registered in the province of Manabí.

Another linked is alias Casquete, a 19-year-old who drove the car from which the hitman fired. Casquete days before he is located watching Ruales while he was training and loading gas station in the stolen car.

Karla M., alias’s girlfriend Casquete, was also linked to the case and was arrested in a proceeding in September, when she went to give her version. She allegedly participated in the burning of the vehicle that occurred after the crime in the Guayaquil suburb. The car was abandoned by a couple who, after setting it on fire, fled on a motorcycle.

Karla was present at the apartment in La Valdivia, in the south of Guayaquil, when alias Casquete, ten days after the crime (February 5). Then the Prosecutor’s Office did not know of the woman’s participation.

Alvaro C., alias AlvaritoHe was arrested on March 3 in Rioverde, Esmeraldas, and he would be the one who pulled the trigger. The alleged hitman is 23 years old and has been in the Penitentiary since his arrest. In his first version of the events in the Prosecutor’s Office of the Cuartel Modelo admitted to shooting and said “they went overboard” and that they had been hired to scare Ruales.

Months later, in an extension of his version, he mentioned that there was a contractor, a man who contacted them. He identified him as Marcelo. He said he had contact through his neighborhood.

“He gave me 70% of the payment the day before, which was $3,500, because the total value was $5,000,” alias indicated. Alvarito.

The defendant’s version states that Marcelo, the apparent contractor, was angry when he learned of Ruales’s murder, since the intention was supposedly to scare the entertainer. His identity is not yet known.

This newspaper contacted the lawyer of Alvarito, but she said she was not authorized to speak.

Alias Aaron He is the only fugitive in this case.. He would have been the one who got rid of the weapon by throwing it into the Salado estuary, in the Trinitaria island sector. The weapon was found months after the crime by divers.

Alias Aaron He gave several versions in the Prosecutor’s Office before his arrest warrant was issued.

Alias Ñorqui still at home.

Ñorqui He spent several months in Prison 4 in Quito, but is currently at home under police guard. The process of the minor involved in this case would be in the National Court, because his defense argued that the detention had been illegal and that this annulled the process because when he was arrested he was sent to an adult prison. Ñorqui he identified himself with his brother’s name because he was not registered in the Civil Registry.

Prosecutor José Morales, who is handling the case of Ñorqui, was also threatened with death shortly before going to the hearing in which he was going to accuse him of being in the car at the time of the assassination. (I)