Against John Poulos, accused in Colombia of murdering DJ Valentina Trespalacios and throwing her body into a garbage dump, there is an arrest warrant in the United States for not paying child support for his three children.
Poulos, 35, a resident of Texas, is in divorce proceedings from his wife Ahsley, who asked to separate from him in 2021 for alleged abusive behavior.
In her first public statements to the media in the US since Poulos’s arrest on January 24 in Panama, the woman indicated that the judge handling the divorce case had issued an arrest warrant against him, since despite who has an order for the payment of child support, has refused to send the child support money. According to the complainant, Poulos has not seen his three youngest children since 2021, which has brought to public discussion the possibility that the defendant may be extradited to his native country.
According to the statements cited by Telemundo Wisconsin, Poulos transferred his money to a trust abroad of which the woman was not a part.
“John and I got married in 2009 and we have three amazing children. The eldest battled cancer at the age of four. The relationship between John and I was abusive, which led me to file for divorce in 2021. Shortly before filing for divorce, John transferred our entire marital estate to an offshore trust, leaving the family with nothing. Shortly after establishing the trust, John left the United States living in various European countries, including Cyprus, Turkey and Ukraine,” Ashley said.
“More recently I learned that he was on vacation in Colombia while he worked and established a residence in Texas,” added the mother.
“John abandoned his children and has not seen them in person since he left Wisconsin in January 2021. His actions have led to horrible divorce proceedings that are still ongoing. John has represented himself as a ‘sovereign citizen’ throughout the divorce proceedings without incurring legal fees, but causing me to incur thousands of dollars in attorney fees and guardians ad litem. Even though he has been ordered to pay child support to him, he has refused to do so,” he revealed.
The woman also claimed to be unaware of what she called the “double life” of her still husband.
“Just yesterday, the judge in our pending divorce case issued a warrant for his arrest. Although he knew that John had been in Colombia for the past few months, through social media posts, he was unaware of the double life he led,” he noted.
The woman ended by indicating that she feels deep sadness for the Trespalacios family.
“I feel deep sadness for the family of Valentina Trespalacios and for all those involved in this tragedy. I also ask that my privacy and that of my children be respected in this process,” he said.
At the moment, Poulos is facing charges of aggravated femicide in contest with concealment, alteration and destruction of evidence. This Thursday, he was sent to the La Picota maximum security prison following the decision of a guarantee judge as an insurance measure.
The El Tiempo report indicates that for the moment the legal process is expected to advance in Colombia.
If the US authorities wanted to transfer Poulos to face charges for his wife’s complaints, a formal request would have to be made to the Colombian Justice for the extradition process and an evaluation would begin as to whether the request is viable and convenient.
For now, the United States has not expressed that these are its intentions. The fact is that in Colombia the defendant faces a much higher penalty than he would in his country of origin.
If convicted of femicide, Poulos could be sentenced to 50 years in prison in Colombia.
In all this discussion there is the aggravating circumstance that Poulos fled the country and was captured in Panama when he was planning to escape on a plane to Istanbul, Turkey.
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