Mother assumes full responsibility for powerful politician’s murder

THE MOTHER and daughter accused of killing Isabel Carrasco, former head of the People´s Party in the Province of Leon in 2014, appeared in court on January 19, alongside a third defendant and alleged co-conspirator in the murder plot.    

Montserrat Gonzalez, wife of a local police chief, is seeking her daughter Triana´s acquittal in the trial, and accepted full responsibility for Ms Carrasco´s murder, which she claims was “out of spite” for Carrasco´s mistreatment of her daughter and her sacking from a job at the Provincial Council, three years before.  

According to prosecutors, Montserrat Gonzalez used a Taurus revolver to shoot Ms Carrasco as she crossed a footbridge in daylight, before passing the murder weapon to daughter Triana to conceal. 

The defence team allege that Montserrat Gonzalez placed the weapon in a handbag and hid it in a garage, before Triana came across the bag and, without realising what was in it, left it in her close friend and police woman Raquel Gago´s car. 

Ms Gago is the third defendant in the case, which has been dubbed ´the trial of the year´ and stands accused of conspiring with Montserrat and Triana to kill Ms Carrasco, since the alleged murder weapon found its way into her possession. Ms Gago is also alleged to have taken a 17-second phone call from Triana Gonzalez at the same moment Ms Carrasco was being attacked.  

Defence lawyers are demanding Triana and Raquel´s full acquittal alongside a seven-year prison sentence for her mother with the extenuating circumstances of mental illness. Prosecutors have fixed their sights on murder charges for all three accused, as well as the additional charges of possessing a firearm and assaulting an authority figure. 

The high profile trial continues.