L-Gante arrived at Criminal Court No. 3 in Mercedes this Tuesday with a smile and living up to his stage name. He entered dressed in a suit and tie, wearing magnifying glasses, in an unknown image. Elian Angel Valenzuela (24) also dyed her hair. It was two-color.
The trial will last, at least, four hearings and there will be around 36 witnesses who will give their testimony. First it was the turn of the accusing party, in the hands of the prosecutor Adrián Landini and the plaintiff lawyers Leonardo Sigal and Pablo Becerra.
L-Ghent faces accusations of threats, illegal deprivation of liberty, qualified threats and qualified concealmentfor three different facts. The complaint, which represents two of the victims, anticipated that it will request between 8 and 12 years of punishment.
The causes were unified to speed up the process: that of “simple threats in real competition with deprivation of liberty in ideal competition with coercive threats“It began after a complaint from Darío Gastón Torres, represented by lawyer Leonardo Sigal.
The most serious, for “simple illegitimate deprivation of liberty in ideal competition with simple threats” reported by Rosa Catalina Passi, is also represented by Sigal. And the remainder by “cover-up aggravated by profit motive“is for a cell phone kidnapped during the raids on L-Gante’s house for these reasons, which had been reported stolen.
How the musician arrived
L-Gante arrived early at the Mercedes courts. This time it was not the same as when he was detained at the DDI headquarters in Quilmes, where his friends and family, better known as “The Mafilia”.
Elián Valenzuela, L-Gante, arrived in a suit and tie to the trial against him in Mercedes.
As far as he could know Clarionthe reference of the cumbia 420 He arrived in a truck with his mother and one of his brothers. He was also accompanied by his two brand new lawyers. He waited in a small room next to the courtroom when he was called for the start of the trial.
The facts of which he is accused
The musician was detained between June 6 and September 8, 2023 and is already seeking his third defense lawyer. First, he was represented by the lawyer Alejandro Cipolla, he went through Juan Pablo Merlo and – until Friday – he was defended by Diego Storto who achieved his release but He resigned from his position days before the oral trial. Now, he will be defended by Luciano Locatelli.
The complaint for unlawful deprivation of liberty was made on May 27, 2023 Gaston Torresneighbor of Valenzuela’s family in the Bicentenario neighborhood of General Rodríguez.
At the exit of a bowling alley and after a fight in which several young friends of L-Gante and “members of La Mafilia”a group of people close to the singer, ended up delayed at the police station.
According to Torres, L-Gante put him in his white BMW under threat with a gun. Photo @l-gante_keloke
According to Torres, when he left the bowling alley to go home, he began to receive threats from Valenzuela and members of the so-called “Mafilia” who went to his house and attacked him.
Then, according to his complaint, a white bmw driven by Valenzuela, who lowered the window, pointed a gun at him and forced him up.
A few meters away, the young Rosa Catalina Passi, also a neighbor of the singer, who had participated in the first argument with the friends of L-Gante, was also intercepted and forced to get into the same car.
Then, always according to the complaint, some members of “La Mafilia” were detained by the Police and L-Gante returned to where the cell phone was, lowered the window and told the agents: “Get rid of the kids or I’ll kill this one“.
Torres, he said, remained 23 minutes “captive” until L-Ghent received a call in which they assured him that his friends had been freed by the Police and he released the victims.
The complaint has already announced that it will request a sentence of between 8 and 12 years in prison for L-Gante.
L-Ghent declared for more than two hours
The beginning of the debate was about whether the musician should be detained while the trial takes place. After the judges’ decision that Valenzuela be released, the musician sat in front of the court and declared for a period of more than two hours.
He highlighted that he “never” deprived Gastón Torres of his freedoma resident of the Bicentenario neighborhood of General Rodríguez. He reported that the man was drunk when he confronted his friends while he was at a bowling alley in Palermo.
The complaint has already announced that it will request a sentence of between 8 and 12 years in prison for L-Gante. Photo Archive / Ariel Grinberg
When he returned to General Rodríguez he found out what happened, so he went directly to look for Torres to talk to him, who got into his truck to go in search of Rosa Passi, the other neighbor involved in the incident.
He then indicated that they talked for almost 15 minutes and that he left them at a service station, where he gave them 4,000 pesos to pay for a taxi to return home.
About the cause of threats and injuries
In the other part of his statement, as he was able to reconstruct ClarionL-Gante recounted the moment when in the middle of a pilgrimage he was with his partner at the time, Tamara Báez, and their little baby Jamaica, when a truck passed by in a “disruptive” manner – as he described – and crashed. due to the little space he had to pass with his Mercedes Benz.
“She stopped one block away, when I caught up with her, she pulled me back and I got out of the vehicle to talk to the person driving. There they closed the window on me, I couldn’t talk and I went back to the car,” he said.
Finally, regarding the file that has him accused of covering up for having found a cell phone reported stolen in a raid on one of his properties, the musician defended himself by saying that he “did not know” its origin.
L-Gante followers stood in front of the police station where he was detained. Photo Archive / Enrique García
The truth is that his new defense, in the hands of the Locatelli studio, from San Isidro, will bet on acquittal due to lack of evidence.
How the trial continues
The debate will continue this Wednesday with the testimony of more than 30 witnesses in the different cases.
Meanwhile, closing arguments from all parties are scheduled to take place on Monday the 14th. Judicial sources confirmed to Clarion that the stipulated date for the sentence is set for Tuesday, October 22.
The freedom of L-Ghent, in the spotlight
Days before the trial against Elián Valenzuela began, the Court of Cassation rejected an appeal related to his release. That is why the complaint again insisted with the request for preventive detention of the musicianalthough due to a strategy of its defenders the measure was suspended at least until the trial is resolved or the Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires intervenes.
The Buenos Aires Court of Cassation ruled on the release of L-Gante, granted by the Guarantee Judge Gabriel Castro. That resolution was revoked by the Mercedes Court of Appeals. The musician’s defense appealed this last decision.
On Friday Cassation declared the appeal inadmissible, which once again enabled it to be detained. Specifically, they expressed their position regarding the imprisonment and expressed that – at the time of the appeal – it was correct that Valenzuela was detained.
However, once again the defense appealed the ruling and the decision now remains in the hands of Cassation and the Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires which, due to the characteristics of the Buenos Aires procedural code, suspends the measure until it is resolved.
Why is this judicial resolution important? While the trial takes place, L-Gante will remain free. But if he is convicted, he could be behind bars again even if the sentence is not final.
