‘Contract killer’ changes story in Santa Pola murder trial

A MAN who killed another in Santa Pola has changed his testimony and exonerated the victim’s partner.

Miguel Fuster initially confessed to killing 65-year-old Jose Gomez in June 2009 with a kitchen knife after the victim’s partner allegedly offered him €2,000 to commit the murder.

An alleged contract killer, Miguel faced a 20-year prison sentence for the murder.

The victim’s 34-year-old partner and mother of two of his seven children, Victoria Belando, was facing a 25-year prison sentence for hiring Miguel. Fuster, 33, now says that he did not intend to kill 65-year-old Jose Gomez and acted in self-defense and that he was not offered €2,000.

Up until the trial it was understood that Belando had called Fuster the night of the incident and let him into the home she shared with Gomez.

She handed him a cushion with which to smother the victim while he slept, however, Gomez awoke and fought back, so was hit with a metal bat and then stabbed.

They then buried the body on a chicken farm in Elche and tried to cover up all traces of the murder.

Now Fuster claims that Belando had called him to talk as she was afraid of Gomez. When he came over to talk to Belando, Gomez, who was sleeping on the sofa, woke-up and made as if to hit Fuster with a metal bat.

Fuster says he fought back and the bat was dropped, so he picked it up and hit Gomez with it in self-defence before running into the kitchen. Gomez was allegedly stabbed with the kitchen knife because he followed them into the kitchen.

Fuster says that his previous testimony was given under pressure by the police and because he did not want them to think that he had a sexual relationship with Belando.

For her part, Belando refused to answer the prosecutor’s questions.

By Nicole Hallett
nicole@euroweeklynews.com