Man Gets 20 Years For Throwing Pretty Ex To Death From 8th Floor Balcony After Text Messages Proved His Abuse

Story By: William McGeeSub-EditorJoana Mihajlovska, Agency: Newsflash

A Dominican has been convicted of throwing his pretty ex-girlfriend, 23, to her death from an eighth-floor balcony and trying to make it look suicide after jurors saw thousands of text messages documenting the abusive relationship.

A court in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo sentenced Gabriel Villanueva to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of the death of Andreea Celea on 31st August 2018.

The Constanta native had moved to the Dominican Republic with her family and had been in a relationship with Gabriel before breaking up with him a year before she was found dead because of his violent ways.

Andreea Celea/Newsflash

Her lifeless body was found on the pavement outside the and P Hotel in the Dominican capital shortly after she was filmed by a security camera at the hotel’s reception with the suspect.

The victim and suspect went up to an eighth-floor room in the hotel and the former’s dead body was found hours later by a member of staff after hearing a thud.

According to local media, the young woman had gone to the hotel with her ex for three days, ostensibly to celebrate her birthday.

Andreea Celea/Newsflash

This was in spite of the fact that the victim had taken out a restraining order against the suspect just days earlier for “violent behaviour”.

After poring over a 4,313-page file of messages and telephone calls and analysing 787 photos and videos, the court found the suspect guilty of murder and aggravated domestic violence.

The suspect’s legal team had unsuccessfully tried to argue that Andreea had committed suicide “in a fit of jealousy”. However, investigators found her injuries were inconsistent with suicide.

Andreea Celea/Newsflash

Gabriel will serve his sentence at the San Pedro de Macoris Correction and Rehabilitation Centre in the municipality of the same name, where he had been in preventive detention.

He will also be required to pay DOP five million (GBP 63,683) in compensation.

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