A WOMAN, 48, has been jailed for 15 years after an 80-year-old British widow was shot dead at the front door of her Elche area villa in May 2022.
The defendant’s son also faced trial, but died aged 18 in a road accident on the Costa Blanca just one before the start of his juvenile court homicide hearing in June.
The motive remains a mystery with the convicted woman- an Alicante real estate agent- admitting to murder on the first day of her trial but not revealing her reason for the brutal assault.
VILLA ENTRANCE(Elche Policia Local image)
The victim- of German descent- has only every been identified by her first name of Marina.
She lived in the Torre Azul district of Torrellano, close to Alicante-Elche airport and became a British national after marrying her husband.
Marina moved to the area 22 years ago with her partner, after he retired from running a recycling company.
She was shot three times, with one bullet going into her head.
Alicante Provincial Court judge, Gracia Serrano, described it as a ‘brutal and ruthless’ crime with ‘total disregard for the victim’.
Prosecutor’s reduced their initial call for the real estate agent to be sentenced to 25 years after she cooperated with authorities.
The assault happened on May 4, 2022 with the mother and son getting access to the villa after the main gate was left open as a plumber was set to arrive.
Once inside the grounds, the intruders went into the property through a glazed porch and made a surprise attack on the elderly Brit.
The convicted killer said during the trial she did not know why she did it and could have suffered a psychotic episode, despite having no previous diagnosis of mental illness.
Prosecutors successfully maintained that everything had been planned, because earlier that day, the woman bought some gloves and took her son out of school to go to the villa.
After the murder, the two of them tried to clean the house and remove evidence including their clothes and gloves.
The weapon was an Olympic shooting pistol registered to the killer which she also tried to get rid of.
Later that night she set fire to her car after dousing it with three canisters of petrol., with the flames reaching eight other vehicles parked in the San Juan beach area of Alicante.
