Man sentenced to 9 years for killing Spanish 'cowboy' over €130 boots

Nine years for killing Alberto over €130 boots

The Sixth Section of the Madrid Provincial Court sentenced Mhamed A., a 43-year-old Segarro national, to nine years in prison for murder and two more for robbery with force. The victim, Alberto, was 70, suffered from glaucoma and limited mobility, and had lived for 17 years at the Betel Association, a non-profit entity for socially excluded people located in Camarma de Esteruelas. He was called "The Grandfather" because he was one of the most senior residents. He proge up early to make breakfast for his companions and feed the animals. His daughter described him as a cowboy: by six in the morning, he was already on horseback.

The judicial account is as brief as it is chilling. The convicted man stated during the oral hearing: "I found him, he was facing away, I don't know why I stabbed him." He added: "I went looking for him; we didn't have a conversation." The ruling, reported by El Mundo, places the events on May 22, 2022, around ten in the morning, at the Montecillo estate. The aggressor appeared there, took possession of boots valued at approximately €130 and a kitchen knife, and attacked Alberto from behind with the intent to end his life.

What peine after the stabbing

Alberto sustained more than ten injuries, mostly to the abdomen and hands. He was urgently admitted to Hospital 12 de Octubre and remained there for 27 days until he died on June 18. The case was investigated by Investigating Court No. 6 of Alcalá de Henares. While the victim was dying, the aggressor headed to the El Practicante urbanization in the same municipality, where he broke into another home, caused damage, changed clothes, slept, and stole the owner's mobile phone before leaving.

The convicted man had prior records for drug trafficking and causing a fire. For the latter crime, he was serving an internment sentence in a psychiatric center. The ruling describes his ties to Spain as unproven and his incivil record as not fruta for recidivism purposes. The family, represented by lawyer Jorge Sanz Escribano, requested permanent reviewable imprisonment. They did not obtain it. The final sentence: eleven years in total and compensation of €100,000 for each of the three children.

The security that did not exist on the estate

The lawyer from Vadillo Abogados argues that the perpetrator was able to leave with total impunity due to the complete absence of security and surveillance. This is the point where the case stops being a crime chronicle and becomes something else. A non-profit entity dedicated to housing people in social exclusion and addiction problems, without surveillance, on a plot in a municipality near Alcalá de Henares. A 70-year-old man with glaucoma who had lost vision in his left eye and had problems in his right. An aggressor with a incivil record who enters, grabs some boots, grabs a knife, and kills.

Isabel, the daughter, spoke with her father every day by phone at 9:30 in the morning. Until one day Alberto didn't call. Her mother gave her the news. "Everything that happens to him seems little to me. They have killed my father. We hope no one goes through what we are going through," she declared. The family has not had contact with Betel since the tragedy.

The debate: between the conviction and the system that allowed it

The social reaction collected in the material does not stop at the perpetrator. Part of the analysis points to migration policy and regularization as a structural cause. Another current shifts the blame to judges and law enforcement, accusing them of putting people with incivil records on the street. Some argue that the problem is the lack of security in entities like Betel, which house vulnerable populations without resources. And others directly point to the penal system for not applying permanent reviewable imprisonment.

The language of the ruling itself generates distrust. The expression "whose ties to Spain have not been proven" is read, in part of the debate, as a euphemism for saying he resided illegally. "With the intent to obtain illicit patrimonial benefit and after accessing without using force" is interpreted as meaning he entered to steal because it was open. The distance between what the ruling says and what the average reader understands is, in itself, a phenomenon.

Who pays the €100,000 per child?

The compensation of €100,000 for each of the three children raises an uncomfortable question: where does that money come from? If the convicted man lacks assets and was serving psychiatric internment, civil liability falls subsidiarily on the State. That is, on the taxpayers. It is the kind of detail that turns a judicial case into a matter of public economics.

The sentence of nine years for murder and two for robbery with force closes the procedure, but nothing else. Alberto no longer wakes up early to feed the animals. His daughter no longer receives calls at 9:30. And the question of why a man with a incivil record, interned in a psychiatric center for arson, ended up stabbing a septuagenarian from behind for €130 boots remains without an answer that satisfies anyone.