Journalist Eugenio Damián Veppo was sentenced to 9 years and three months in prison for the simple murder of Cinthia Choque, the 28-year-old transit agent who ran over in September 2019 in Palermo’s Buenos Aires neighborhood. In fact, he also ran over Choque’s partner, Santiago Siciliano, who was seriously injured. In a unanimous ruling, the Criminal Oral Court (OTO) 14, with judges Domingo Altieri, Hugo Cataldi and Silvia Mora, considered Veppo the perpetrator of the offences of “simple homicide and serious injury with eventual harm.” I reiterate my sincere request for apologies to Cinthia’s family. I’ve been in detention for over a year and a half. I was reckless, but I never remembered that I could cause this accident, I’m deeply sorry,” veppo’s last words were before I met the verdict.
The journalist followed the last month of the proceedings against him through Zoom, from the Ezeiza prison, where he has been detained since his arrest. Family members, as well as relatives of the victims, were also present at the virtual hearing where they read the sentence. The final rating was the initial: simple homicide in eventual dolo when fleeing and refusing to attend it, in real contest with serious injuries. The ruling also disabled Veppo from driving for ten years: he must surrender his record and his car will be selaught and made available to the Court. In addition, a new cause will be opened defining whether Alberto Aznar, Veppo’s escort at the time of the accident, committed a public action offence. The event occurred during the early morning of September 8, 2019 in the Palermo neighborhood, on Avenida del Libertador. There, Veppo, aboard a Volkswagen Passat, drove at very high speed and “zig zag” on public roads, and rammed the two traffic policemen who were fulfilling their duties. After committing the crime, the young man escaped without helping the victims. More than a year later, the sentence he sentenced to the young man was finally known. The prosecution had applied for the minimum penalty for the offence of “culpable homicide in ideal contest with serious culpable injuries, both aggravated”, i.e. unentionally, which provides for a sentence of 5 years and 10 months in prison. This had sparked outrage from the victims’ relatives, as that legal rating was different from Veppo’s until oral trial. For his part, the choque family’s lawyer applied for a 15-year prison conviction for the journalist, “the seizure” of the car with which he caused the tragedy and to disable him for 10 years to drive.
