Prosecutors in the murder case of Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios revealed that the American accused of the crime forced her to have sex before beating and strangling her to death.
The remains of Trespalacios, 23, were found on Sunday in a suitcase inside a garbage container in Bogotá.
John Poulos, 35 years old and who had a relationship with the young woman, faces charges of aggravated femicide in competition with concealment, alteration and destruction of evidence.
This Friday he appeared for the second time in a court in the capital.
Poulos, a Texas native who had a wife and three children in the country, declined to plead guilty to the charges.
“I am aware of my decision and did not accept the charges,” he declared in court according to media reviews inside and outside Colombia.
Daniel Gómez, the prosecutor in charge of the evidence against the foreigner, alleged that Poulos attacked Trespalacios on January 22, after forcing her to have sexual relations and hitting her several times with his fists on her face and other parts of her body. Next, he squeezed her neck until she was fatally strangled.
According to Gómez, there was a cycle of psychological violence that preceded the crime that was represented in all the activity of jealousy and control of the man over Valentina’s social life. The prosecutor insisted that the defendant took the DJ’s life due to the above.
The report by the local media outlet Semana details that Poulos arrived in the country on the night of January 19 to meet the DJ, with whom he had been in a relationship for several months. Apparently, Trespalacios was unaware of the man’s double life. He had promised her that he would move to the South American country and marry her.
Poulos spent the entire weekend with the young woman in an apartment she rented on Calle 101 with 21, in the north of Bogotá, and in various commercial establishments.
After murdering her, the prosecution alleges that the American put the body inside a suitcase. Because the DJ’s head was exposed, he covered it with a sheet. The suspect proceeded to place the suitcase in a shopping cart that he pushed down the hall of the building until he placed it in the elevator to go to the parking space where a Volkswagen Voyager car that he had rented was.
In the early hours of Monday he went to the town of Fontibón, where he dumped the body. Then he drove to the airport and boarded a flight to Panama City. Poulos intended to escape to Istanbul, Turkey. However, he was detained at the Tocumen airport on Tuesday thanks to the coordinated work of the authorities in that country and Colombia. Interpol also collaborated in the operation. Allegedly, the man threw Trespalacios’ cell phone at the El Dorado airport before taking the plane to Panama.
Images from surveillance cameras in the complex captured Poulos moving what would be the body of Trespalacios and then placing it in the trunk of the car.
At yesterday’s hearing, Poulus appeared calm and at times leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head.
Before the crime was reported, the man had hired a private investigator to follow Trespalacios, Gomez added.
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