Eight rugby players accused of beating an 18-year-old to death plotted how to get away with the murder on WhatsApp, a court in Argentina has heard.
Victim Fernando Baez Sosa was beaten mercilessly outside a nightclub in Villa Gesell on 18th January 2020, say prosecutors.
He died after he was kicked, punched and bludgeoned by the gang once they had knocked him to the ground, the court head.
An autopsy found that he died from a cardiac arrest caused by “multiple head injuries that generated a massive intracranial haemorrhage”.
The teen’s accused killers appeared in court in Dolores on 2nd January on charges of homicide aggravated by premeditation and the participation of two or more people.
If convicted, they face life imprisonment.
The defendants, aged between 21 and 23, are former players of Nautico Arsenal Zarate rugby club.
Prosecutors also accuse them of causing minor injuries to Fernando’s friends, who were with him at the time of the attack and who tried to defend him.
The victim’s parents are originally from Paraguay.
His mother, Graciela Sosa, told the court: “I don’t understand, and I will never accept, how boys Fer’s age did this to him.
“They attacked him from behind, they threw him on the floor, they smashed his head.”
She added: “My son needs justice so he can rest and we can have a bit of peace in our souls.”
Prosecutors accuse Maximo Thomsen, Ciro Pertossi, Enzo Comelli, Matias Benicelli, and Blas Cinelli of attacking Fernando.
And they say Ayrton Viollaz, Lucas Pertossi, and Luciano Pertossi prevented his friends from defending him.
The savage beating took place on a main street and was caught on several CCTV cameras.
Afterwards, the suspects exchanged messages on WhatsApp rehearsing their alibis.
Grieving dad Silvino Baez said in a tearful testimony: “Judges, you are listening here to the story of a father who has lost everything.
“He has lost happiness, the desire to live, to fight, and he lost the best thing of all, which is his son’s hug.”
When he went to see his son’s body, he said, he found him with a “bashed-in head”.
He told the court: “He was completely dripping with blood. I couldn’t touch him.”
The trial continues.
