Multi-killer faces add-on sentence to 50-year jail term

The convicted killer  Dominican  Gilberto Ventura Ceballos, already facing a 50-year jail term for the kidnapping and murder  of Asian students  will  get another sentence  on May 31 escaping from La Joyita prison and illicit association to commit a crime

The specialized prosecutor against organized crime, David Mendoza, requested the conviction of Ventura Ceballos, Lieutenant Ricardo Flores and inmate Ameth Portocarrero for the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime and evasion in La Joyita.

However, Flores, Portocarrero and Corporal Carlos Pérez were acquitted.

In his, Mendoza also requested the acquittal of National Police corporal, stating that he had been used as a “useful fool” by those who planned the escape of Ventura Ceballos.

Flores ‘lawyer, Angel Calderón, said that the judges said that no evidence of the participation of the three defendants in Ventura Ceballos’ escape was presented.

Mendoza noted that during the trial the defense of Ventura Ceballos alleged that this was never associated with the rest of those involved to execute his escape, but an expert report of the phone calls revealed that Ventura Ceballos’s cell phone made a total of 2,782 phone calls from Yeliseth Machado, who reached a plea agreement with the prosecution, Angie Smith and Feinar Garcés, who were part of the group that collaborated in the escape of Ventura Ceballos.

He also detailed that the National Police Lieutenant Ricardo Flores was the person who instructed Corporal Perez to transfer Ventura Ceballos to the lawyer’s visit area without handcuffs on his feet

The prosecutor estimated that since October 2015 there was a plan to escape from Ventura Ceballos, but that it did not materialize until December 2016.

The oral trial began on December 3, 2018, but was suspended due to health problems of Ventura Ceballos.

Ventura Ceballos was captured on September 29, 2017, in Costa Rica, and in 2018 he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of five university students in the district of La Chorrera. They were kidnapped and killed between 2010 and 2011.