Crepes poisoner in Bilbao's Zorroza district sentenced to 6 years

Six years in prison for poisoning her husband's crepes in Astut

The facts tried by the Audiencia de Bizkaia (the provincial court of Biscay, Spain) fit into two sentences. On 7 July 2024, a woman served her husband some crepes she had made the night before, with several diazepam tablets dissolved into the batter. The man, who was working from home in a room of the house they shared in Bilbao's Astut district, fell asleep. The verdict classifies it as attempted murder and costs the defendant six years in prison.

From sedative in the batter to hospital bed

According to the ruling's account, with the victim unconscious the woman cut his wrists to fake a suicide and tried to suffocate him by pressing a pillow against his face. The man proge up, struggled, called for help and ended up on the floor shouting "Police!". A neighbour alerted the Ertzaintza (the Basque police), which took a quarter of an hour to get into the home because the defendant delayed opening the door: she had injured her arms and face, apparently to stage a case of gender violence.

She was taken to Cruces Hospital, where the victim was admitted into a coma from the diazepam. He went through resuscitation, intubation with mechanical ventilation and several stitches. The verdict refers to injuries of "high risk to life" and subsequent psychological care. The trial was held at the Audiencia de Bizkaia.

Why does the sentence stay at six years?

Here lies the crux. The court finds the aggravating factor of kinship and, on the other side of the scale, two mitigating factors: reparation of damage, deemed highly qualified, and an analogous one for psychological disturbance. The first rests on the 55,480 euros the defendant deposited into the court's account on 19 October, which the victim has already received.

The second rests on the ruling's description of a "dysfunctional personality style" in the defendant. The verdict places it in the breakup of a "highly dysfunctional" couple, with high life frustration, stress from raising their shared son and a weak support network. That, the text says, conditioned her view of reality and her decision-making: an impairment that is, literally, mild.

Released without bail since September 2024

The procedural route adds another element to the conversation. On 9 September 2024, Bilbao's Court of Violence against Women granted her provisional release without bail, with mandatory weekly appearances every Monday, surrender of her passport and a restraining order from her husband. On 29 May 2025, Bilbao's Court of First Instance and Investigating Court number 6 upheld the measure. Preventive detention: none.

The debate over mitigating factors and the defendant's sens

One strand of analysis reads the verdict as yet another case of selective leniency: it argues that when the defendant is a man, social context operates as an aggravating factor, and when it is a woman, as a mitigating one.

Some bring up the American case of Lindsay Clancy, still unresolved, to predict a shift in the courts' trend. It is a projection, and circulates as such.

Six years in prison over a breakfast. Throughout the proceedings the convicted woman appeared in court every Monday. She never spent a night in preventive detention.