Jorge Armando Cuevas Pretel, accused of beating Raúl Orlando Torales to death in 2021, has been granted house arrest, even though a witness testified that the accused committed the crime while “jumping” on the victim's head. After four years in prison, he will be monitored electronically. The Chamber of Appeals and Guarantees in Criminal Matters, Division IV, in La Plata, resolved by majority to attenuate the preventive detention for qualified homicide. The ruling was signed by judges Ernesto Julián Ferreira, Carina Verónica Gil, and Carlos Ariel Argüero, which overturned the decision of the Criminal Oral Court No. 5, which had rejected the request. According to official sources reported to the Argentine News Agency, the accused will remain at his home with electronic monitoring and must submit to monthly police checks, while contact with the victim's circle was prohibited under penalty of revocation of the benefit. Cuevas Pretel has been detained since September 1, 2021, accused of the qualified homicide of Raúl Orlando Torales, a case that will be judged by a jury between November 24 and 30, 2026. The majority vote was cast by magistrates Ferreira and Gil, who considered that the accused's personal circumstances, the time spent in pretrial detention, and the existence of co-defendants who already enjoy similar measures justify a less coercive modality. Judge Carlos Argüero, in dissent, proposed rejecting the appeal, considering that the procedural risks of flight and obstruction of the investigation still exist, as he highlighted the seriousness of the accusation, the psychological reports incorporated into the case, and the accused's criminal record. Ferreira, with the concurrence of Judge Gil, argued that “the time of pre-trial detention suffered, family support, and the progress of the process allow us to understand that the procedural risks can be neutralized by a less rigorous measure”.
