Draft:Guardia Urbana Crime

The Guardia Urbana Crime refers to the murder of Pedro Rodríguez, a 38-year-old agent of the Guardia Urbana de Barcelona whose charred corpse was discovered on May 4, 2017 in a burned-out car near the Foix Reservoir in Spain.

The juried trial began on February 3, 2020. The victim's partner, Rosa Peral, was 36 at the time of the crime, and her lover, Albert López, was 39. Both were also members of Barcelona's Guardia Urbana. Peral and López were accused of having killed Rodríguez in his home on the morning of May 1, 2017 and, on the following day, having hidden his body in the trunk of his car and driving it to the Foix Reservoir, where they set it on fire.

The three members of the love triangle starred in the main scandals that rocked the Guardia Urbana de Barcelona in the months before the crime. Peral had reported being the victim of revenge porn perpetrated by another member of the force. In 2014, López had participated int he arrest of a man Montjuic who died during the process. At the time of the crime, the victim had been suspended from work for having attacked a motorist on the highway BP-1417, also known as the Carretera de la Rabassada.[1]

During the trial, the two defendants accused one another: Peral accused López of killing her boyfriend out of jealousy. López accused Peral of having killed Rodríguez because Rodríguez had attacked her, and then claimed Peral had asked him to help her get rid of Rodríguez's body. The prosecutor argued that the two had killed Rodríguez as part of a premeditated plot. The pair had previously dated, and they wanted to resume their relationship and get rid of Peral's then-boyfriend, Rodríguez. The prosecution requested a sentence of 20 years in jail for López for murder with betrayal, and 25 years for Peral for murder with betrayal, aggravated by her kinship with the victim.[2]

At the end of March 2020, after six days of deliberations, eight of the ten jury members found Peral guilty and seven of the ten jury members found López guilty of murder with betrayal.[3] Peral and López were sentenced to a 25 and 20 years in jail, respectively. In addition, both convicts were required to pay the victim's family 885 000 euros. Although the crime was the same for both of the accused, five years were added to Peral's sentence in aggravation due to her relationship to the subject.[4] Peral and López appealed their sentences without success: both the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña and the Tribunal Supremo upheld the decision.[5]

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The case was covered in El crimen de la Guardia Urbana, a four-part docuseries that aired in January 2022, which was a Spanish-dubbed version of the program broadcast by TV3 Crims, by Carles Porta, about several of the crimes that had the most impact on popular opinion in recent years.[6]

In September 2022, the first miniseries inspired by the crime, El cuerpo en llamas, was announced. The protagonists would be played by the actors Úrsula Corberó and Quim Gutiérrez, accompanied by José Manuel Poga and Isak Ferriz. The show began airing on September 19, 2022 in Barcelona[7], and it was released on Netflix on September 8, 2023.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Riart, Montse (16 May 2022). El crimen de la Guardia Urbana, un juicio de "deducciones". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  2. ^ Muñoz, Toni (16 May 2022). "Arranca en Barcelona el juicio del crimen de la Guardia Urbana". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  3. ^ Riart, Montse (16 May 2022). "Peral y López, culpables del crimen de la Guardia Urbana en un veredicto sin unanimidad". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  4. ^ Riart, Montse (16 May 2022). "Condenas de 25 y 20 años de cárcel para Rosa Peral y Albert López por el crimen de la Guardia Urbana". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  5. ^ Riart, Montse (16 May 2022). "El Supremo ratifica la condena a Rosa Peral por el crimen de la Guardia Urbana". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  6. ^ "'El crimen de la Guardia Urbana' de Carles Porta, la serie que Movistar+ estrenará el 17 de enero". 11 January 2022.
  7. ^ FormulaTV (15 September 2022). "Úrsula Corberó y Quim Gutiérrez protagonizarán 'El cuerpo en llamas' para Netflix". FormulaTV (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  8. ^ Vertele (22 August 2023). "Netflix lanza el tráiler de 'El cuerpo en llamas', su serie sobre el crimen de la Guardia Urbana". Vertele (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-08-31.