In La Plata, on December 1, the trial against Marcelo Tagliaferro, a taxi driver accused of aggravated perjury in the case of the La Plata quadruple murder, will begin. Patricia Godoy, a neighbor of Osvaldo “Alito” Martínez, will also be tried. Both will appear at the trial as free persons, according to sources from the case to the Argentine News Agency.
The case, which occurred between the night of November 27, 2011, and the early morning of the following day, left a tragic toll: four women murdered in an apartment on 28th Street between 41st and 42nd. Following a controversial investigation, the main accused was Osvaldo “Karateca” Martínez, the partner of one of the victims. However, in 2014, Oral Court No. 3 unanimously acquitted him and convicted Javier “The Hyena” Quiroga as the perpetrator of the crimes, who remains behind bars.
“The court corroborated it and even so chose to accuse me,” “Alito” recalled. No traces of Martínez were found at the crime scene. In the acquittal ruling, judges Santiago Paolini, Andrés Vitali, and Ernesto Domenech ordered an investigation into Tagliaferro and Godoy for aggravated perjury, an offense that provides for sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
Tagliaferro will be defended by lawyer Gonzalo Escaray, while the prosecution will be led by prosecutor Mariano Sibuet before the Oral Court in Criminal Matters No. 4 of La Plata. The particular injured party is Osvaldo Martínez, represented by lawyers Sebastián Chouela and Belén Chapur.
The first hearing is scheduled for this Monday at 10 a.m. in the building of the La Plata Criminal Court located on 8th Street between 56th and 57th. With this legal offensive, Martínez seeks to determine, after 14 years, the responsibilities of those who, he maintains, contributed to his unjust accusation while the real murderer remained free. To this end, he presented a document signed by the investigating prosecutor, Álvaro Garganta, of UFI No. 11.
What the neighbor testified In the investigation conducted by prosecutor Ana Medina, Patricia Godoy was also implicated, who claimed to have seen Martínez arrive at her home in Melchor Romero in the early morning of the crime, “in his underwear,” getting out of his white Fiat Uno. For Garganta, these statements reinforced the suspicion against “Alito.”
Martínez always maintained that he did not leave his home that night and that he messaged his partner, Bárbara Santos, one of the victims. “I told the prosecutor that I stayed watching a movie with Angelina Jolie, Salt.” Martínez, who spent six months in prison, was declared innocent. That decision was ratified unanimously by the Court of Cassation and the Buenos Aires Supreme Court.
What the taxi driver testified and why he will be tried Tagliaferro initially testified that while taking Marisol Pereyra to the location, he saw a man between 20 and 40 years old, with his torso bare, come out to greet her; although he said he could not identify him. Hours later, after seeing Martínez's image in the media, he changed his testimony and stated that he could recognize him as the man he saw that night. Accompanied by lawyer Fernando Burlando, he voluntarily appeared before the prosecutor's office and also signed up to collect the 300,000 peso reward that the Province was offering for information in the case.
