The five-year-old girl was crossing a pedestrian crossing hand in hand with her mother in Roquetas de Mar (Almería), on July 6, 2021. The impact displaced her several meters
The driver, who had a gin and tonic in the car, “never asked for forgiveness, he only offered money to avoid the trial that will be held in October,” denounces the minor’s family.
“They ran over the girl!” David picked up the phone, about to leave work. On the other end of the phone, broken, was Rocío, his wife. Four calls from different witnesses alerted 112 at the same time. Tuesday, July 6, 2021, Rocío He was walking with his daughter when a car at high speed crossed the pedestrian crossing while they were crossing hand in hand.. The little girl’s name was Leire, she was five years old, and she came from the park with her mother, who was four months pregnant. It was 8:20 p.m. when a drunk driver He killed her in Roquetas de Mar (Almería).
The driver came out with “red eyes”, a “pasty mouth”, an obvious “wobble” and a strong “smell of alcohol”, the police report states.
A brake and a strong hit. People gathered at the crosswalk in a matter of seconds. Everyone in shock. FMS, the driver, got out of the car. He did it, according to the report of the Local Police of Roquetas de Mar, to which this medium has accessed, with “red eyes”, “pasty mouth”, with an obvious “wobble” and a strong “smell of alcohol”. Military by profession, legionnaire, stationed in Almería. He got out of the car, but did not approach the victim. After half an hour of resuscitation, nothing could be done for the little girl: Leire died.
Deborah, the girl’s aunt, goes back with CASO ABIERTO, Prensa Ibérica’s events and investigation portal, to that heartbreaking July 6 two years ago. Also relive the judicial fight that they hope to end on October 19, when the trial against the driver will be held in Criminal Court number 3 of Almería. The legionnaire, released on charges, faces five years in prison (this is what the girl’s family asks for); the prosecutor, for his part, requests a penalty of four.
FMS arrives at the court date after two failed attempts to avoid sitting in the dock. He contacted the family, they denounce, with the sole purpose: to reach a economic agreement to stop the criminal case. “Through her lawyer,” says Deborah, “he let us know that he offered compensation, paying us money, apart from what we received from the insurance. “He gave 70,000 euros in exchange for reaching a written agreement to drop the charges against him.”
The answer was resounding: no. “My sister-in-law was pregnant when he killed Leire. He was there next to the girl. He could have killed her too, and her baby. He never called to apologize nor was he interested.”
The accident
“Leire and my sister-in-law had already gone to the park order books for the beginning of the course“, begins Deborah, whose voice breaks as the conversation progresses. “They were already returning home, they had to pass through the Alicun highway, in the Parador neighborhood, where they lived.” Rocío and David (the parents of the youngest) They settled in Almería a few years beforebut they come from Cabeza de Buey (Badajoz).
Leire and her mother stop at the pedestrian crossing, in front of Mercadona. “It’s a four-lane road, two in each direction,” Deborah reconstructs. The clock, according to the police report, reads 8:21 p.m.
“They were standing in the median, where there is a small piece of sidewalk,” explains their aunt, “and they started walking when they saw a car stop and let them pass. When they started to cross, another car, with a man that he was very drunkpassed the one who was standing and ran over Leire. He did not even come close to see what had happened to the girl or to try to help her. He got out, leaned on the hood of the car, put his hands on his head and that’s it. He didn’t do anything else.”
The police report confirms what Deborah says. The driver’s breathalyzer test showed chilling figures: 0.98 mg per liter of air aspirated, which dropped to 0.96 in the second measurement performed. The agents entered the car and, inside, next to the steering wheel, they found a glass that, after analyzing it, turned out to be a combination of gin and tonic. At the same time, David, after hanging up the phone, arrived at the scene of the incident within minutes to meet his wife and his daughter. They could only confirm that Leire was no longer there.
At high speed
FMS, 27 years old (at that time) two weeks away from adding another year. Born in Jaén, stationed in Almería for a year, the last seven he had been in Melilla. In total, eight years in the legion. No criminal record, only a previous, significant fine, for driving while having drunk alcohol. He was arrested and brought to justice. “He was in the police station for 36 hours. I remember that Leire had not yet been cremated when she left. They called us to tell us that she had left when we were leaving the funeral home where the cremation was going to take place“.
The instruction was forged with the following certainties: FMS “was under the influence of alcoholic beverages.” Some witnesses added that he had been driving recklessly kilometers before. The soldier, according to the police investigations to which OPEN CASE has been able to access, also maintained “an average speed of 83.16 km/hour – with a margin of error of 10 – when the maximum allowed on that road was 50 km/hour “.
Before the judge, the accused admitted that “he had four or five beers while eating” and, later, “two or three more drinks.”
He braked late. He moved the little girl’s body more than 20 meters and killed her. Before the judge, FMS admitted, as this media has learned, that he “drank four or five beers while eating” and that later he went to a place, where he had “two or three more drinks.” That he took a gin and tonic “and put it in the car”, that He drove “because he saw himself in full power,” that perhaps Leire was not holding her mother’s hand and went ahead. He assured that he did not see the girl because in the area “there was vegetation” that reduced his visibility. This last fact has been denied by the Roquetas de Mar City Council. A technical report states that since 2020 there is no vegetation in that section, only artificial grass.
“You are going to destroy his life”
On December 24 of that same year, Leire’s mother gave birth. Her pregnancy was threatened, too much pain. “I remember that When they called to tell us that he has been released from prison, we had to go to the hospital“, says Deborah. During all this time, FMS “was never interested” in them, she says. Until it offered a financial pact. “He doesn’t want to go to jail, because if he goes, he is a legionary, a soldier, and If you have a criminal record of that caliber, you will be fired from the force.. “He doesn’t want to lose his job.” Leire’s family rejected him.
“A few months later, he contacted me again, and proposed it again.” The message destroyed the girl’s family: “she told us that if we continued with the lawsuit and they put him in jail, We were going to destroy your client’s life.“. Deborah expresses herself with pain and anger: “destroy his life, his?”
Reckless or intentional homicide
The investigation of the case was closed with the opening of a trial against FMS for reckless homicide and reckless driving. The judicial system was added to the fight to move forward. “We appealed the decision to try him for reckless homicide, we believe that he was a homicide. The difference is that when you commit intentional homicide, you commit what we want is for the law to recognize that it was not reckless, it was a possibility that “He assumed he could pass for driving with that level of alcohol.”.
The judge ignored his appeal. “Our entire legal battle has been that,” explains Juan Manuel Medina, family lawyer, before the call of this medium. “The driver, with a level of alcohol like the one he has, excessive speed, with total and absolute recklessness, You get into the vehicle regardless of the physical integrity of the people you may encounter on the road. “He doesn’t care,” she laments.
In a month they will see each other’s faces. Deborah, Leire’s aunt, faces the trial with fear. “Fear of seeing my family again reliving everything, and fear of what is going to happen because I, personally, don’t think he will pay for what he has done.” “It’s exasperating…” adds Medina, “and I truly believe that Whatever sentence is handed down, it will not be enough. “There is no sentence that compensates for this pain.”
Leire, the little girl with the golden hair, “gluttonous”, “shy”, “happy”. She loved Frozen, playing, painting… “painting on furniture and on the wall…”, her aunt recalls smiling. She enjoyed watching cartoons on television. Her favorites, Paw Patrol and Mickey Mouse. “He had a snail to which he gave flour and water. And a little dog, Laika, that she was carrying on her leash when she died.“.
He didn’t go anywhere without his dolls: Vaca – a little cow – and Keko, one with a small, big-headed body. “It’s so horrible,” laments her aunt. She does not forget the image of her niece in her goodbye. The tearing of her parents. She does not forget, either, the first days after the tragic event: “you enter the house and you don’t listen to her, there is no one who will run out and tell you: ‘Titi!’. There is nothing. Silence. A terrible silence. Silence… nothing more.”