Jury tries couple over the death of a 77-year-old woman in Rojales

A jury began hearing a case on Monday, 26 October, against a man and a woman accused of homicide by omission over the death of a 77-year-old resident of Rojales.

The trial is taking place before the Seventh Section of Alicante’s Provincial Court, based in Elche, and the defendants are the victim’s daughter and her partner.

The proceedings will determine their responsibility for the alleged failure to care for the woman or seek medical assistance before her death in March 2024.

The events being examined by the jury

According to the prosecution, the elderly woman lived with the two defendants in a home in Rojales and allegedly spent several days lying on the floor without receiving the help she needed.

The jury must establish whether she suffered an accidental fall in the days before her death and whether the defendants failed to help her or contact medical services.

The account being examined at trial places the call to the 112 emergency telephone service at around 3am on 12 March 2024.

Personnel from the SAMU emergency medical service found the woman still alive but close to death, and were unable to resuscitate her.

A hearing scheduled to run until Friday

The trial has opened with the formation of the jury and is expected to continue until Friday, 30 October, at Elche’s courthouse.

Among the questions to be resolved is whether the defendants neglected the victim’s needs with the intention of causing her death or while accepting the possibility that she might die.

These are elements of the prosecution case to be examined during the hearing, rather than facts established by a judgment; both defendants retain their presumption of innocence.

Another case concerning events in Rojales

The Eleventh Section of the Provincial Court, also based in Elche, is scheduled to try two other men on Monday over alleged sexual offences during a party at a home in Rojales on 1 May 2022.

In that separate case, prosecutors are seeking seven years in prison for the defendant accused of sexual assault and one year and ten months for the defendant accused of sexual abuse; these are prosecution requests, not sentences.