Overview
- The lone defendant, Miguel V. N., declared himself innocent in court and maintains he did not participate in the killing of Alfonso López Benito.
- He says a man he calls Manuel handed him the priest’s phone and cards after the death, a figure homicide investigators describe as imaginary.
- Forensic doctors testified the victim died by a mixed mechanism of strangulation and suffocation with a fractured hyoid, no defensive injuries and the body later repositioned.
- Police reported no biological traces of the accused at the Avellanas home or on the body, but cited a fingerprint of his in the Perelló apartment and mixed DNA profiles from unknown males in household items.
- Telecom analysis placed the accused’s phone on the antenna covering the victim’s address at the likely time of death, and records show attempts to recover PIN codes and about €2,500 in post‑mortem card withdrawals attributed by investigators to the accused.