Fugitive killer mocks judges from Caribbean
In a story that could come straight from Hollywood, a man facing 20 years in prison in Spain for murder has been sending postcards to his trial judge from the Caribbean, despite there being an international warrant for his arrest.
Frenchman Walter Jerome C.R, who has been on the run for six years, has been sending his trial judges jokey postcards from Margarita Island and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
He was sentenced by a court in the Spanish province of Huesca in 2006 for the murder of Dutchman Johannes Everardus Engel, whom he shot after a dispute over a debt.
Despite the accused having admitted to shooting the victim, supreme court judges could not prove motive or premeditation in his behaviour, so overturned the original verdict and ordered a retrial, temporarily releasing the accused.
However he promptly fled the country before the 2008 retrial had even begun.
Judges in Huesca immediately ordered an international warrant for his arrest.
Walter Jerome C.R’s response to the international manhunt has been far from what might be expected of a fugitive convicted murderer; rather than keeping a low profile, he has been sending his greetings to the very judges who condemned him to 20 years in prison, sending a series of postcards from his Caribbean hideaway.
In the postcards, the 60-year-old sends his very best wishes to the judges in a jovial tone, judicial sources told local newspaper the Heraldo de Aragón, also lamenting the fact that the fugitive had evaded justice since he was sentenced to 20 years for the murder, which took place in the Pyrenean hamlet of Aler.
During his original trial, the French man admitted shooting the victim because the victim had threatened to "crush him" if he did not pay back the money he owed.
The judges ruled that Walter Jerome C.R shot the victim four times, using a pistol with a silencer attached, after the victim refused to let him pay his debt with building materials rather than cash.
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Frenchman Walter Jerome C.R, who has been on the run for six years, has been sending his trial judges jokey postcards from Margarita Island and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
He was sentenced by a court in the Spanish province of Huesca in 2006 for the murder of Dutchman Johannes Everardus Engel, whom he shot after a dispute over a debt.
Despite the accused having admitted to shooting the victim, supreme court judges could not prove motive or premeditation in his behaviour, so overturned the original verdict and ordered a retrial, temporarily releasing the accused.
However he promptly fled the country before the 2008 retrial had even begun.
Judges in Huesca immediately ordered an international warrant for his arrest.
Walter Jerome C.R’s response to the international manhunt has been far from what might be expected of a fugitive convicted murderer; rather than keeping a low profile, he has been sending his greetings to the very judges who condemned him to 20 years in prison, sending a series of postcards from his Caribbean hideaway.
In the postcards, the 60-year-old sends his very best wishes to the judges in a jovial tone, judicial sources told local newspaper the Heraldo de Aragón, also lamenting the fact that the fugitive had evaded justice since he was sentenced to 20 years for the murder, which took place in the Pyrenean hamlet of Aler.
During his original trial, the French man admitted shooting the victim because the victim had threatened to "crush him" if he did not pay back the money he owed.
The judges ruled that Walter Jerome C.R shot the victim four times, using a pistol with a silencer attached, after the victim refused to let him pay his debt with building materials rather than cash.
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