Pretrial detention ordered for a teacher for the death of the minor Esmeralda Richiez in the Dominican Republic

( Spanish) — Judge Francis Yojary Reyes Diloné of the Dominican Republic sentenced to a year in pretrial detention Professor John Kelly Martínez, arrested in the case of the violent rape and homicide of his underage student in Higüey.

According to the investigation by the Public Ministry, what began as a visit to the beach turned into a night of terror that cost the life of the student Esmeralda Richiez, who bled to death after the lacerations, abrasions and bruises that provoked by Martínez for violent sexual activity.

Also for the case, Rubiel Morrillo Martínez, the professor’s cousin, was ordered to appear periodically before a judge, who faces charges of complicity in the death of the minor.

According to the accusing body, Morillo Martínez hid the bloody pants of his cousin Kelly Martínez.

According to the preliminary autopsy report of the National Institute of Forensic Pathology (Inacif), the death of Esmeralda Richiez was due to a vaginal tear, with severe acute internal bleeding that caused hemorrhagic shock.

The Public Ministry indicated in the request for a measure of coercion that Professor Kelly Martínez subjected Richiez to violent sexual activity on Sunday, February 12, inside a vehicle.

The professor’s legal representative, Modesto Castillo, said he will not appeal his client’s coercive measure. Castillo asked the Attorney General’s Office to send a special commission to investigate the case in depth. is trying to contact the lawyer for Rubiel Morrillo Martínez, the professor’s cousin.

How the events occurred, according to the investigation

According to the La Altagracia Judicial District Prosecutor’s Office, the young woman and three other friends —also minors— left in a car around 7:30 pm local time, accompanied by the Physical Education and Mathematics teacher, John Kelly. Martínez, and his cousin Rubén Morillo Martínez, to a beach in the area.

Upon arriving at Macao beach, some 28 kilometers from the adolescent’s residence, according to the statements of the minors, “they proceed to dismount from the vehicle together with Mr. Rubén (Morillo) and leave Martínez on board the car with the minor age”.

The factual account describes that when the group left Macao beach, from that moment on the victim “had heavy vaginal bleeding.”

Before arriving at the house, they made several stops to assist her, including a fuel station where the teenager used the bathroom, leaving it “bloody everywhere,” the owner told authorities.

According to the act of voluntary surrender of objects, in the security cameras of the establishment it can be seen at 9:45 on Sunday night that the young woman got out with the person who was driving the vehicle (John Kelly Martínez) and that the man in a moment he entered the bathroom with her.

The story indicates that, at approximately midnight, the young woman came home pale and bleeding, so her parents helped her and she stayed in her room.

The teen’s parents found her dead Monday morning in the bathroom of her residence.

The story of the parents of Esmeralda Richiez

Wrapped in tears, the mother of the minor, Isabel Martínez, said she felt sorry for having let her daughter go out with that “blessed teacher and three friends.”

“I spoke to him on the phone and I said: ‘Are you a teacher?’ And he told me: ‘Yes, it’s me’. And I told him: ‘There, take care of my daughter, I’m going to let her out of it because she’s with you.’ I was innocent that my daughter was with that man, “said her mother.

When her daughter arrived from the “walk” she immediately recounted that she and her husband noticed that their daughter was strange.

“I told her: ‘Daughter, I see you a little strange, I see you as pale.’ She told me: ‘Oh, mommy, I have nothing. And I told her: ‘But I see you strange, daughter, tell me what you have’. And I ask the friend what they gave her, if she had been given drugs, because I thought she had been given drugs because she came pale ”.

Her parents reported that the adolescent had bleeding. The young woman insisted, according to her mother, that it was her period and that she just wanted to rest.

On February 13, at 6:30 am, her mother went to pick her up for school and knocked on her bedroom door. But her daughter did not answer.

When his parents opened the door it was already too late. The bed, they say, was bloody.

“In the morning when I got up, I found my daughter lying there. She bled to my daughter, she lost all her blood. My daughter was lying in the bathroom, full of blood”, Isabel Martínez narrated between tears.

In the preliminary conclusion of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif), the document states the following: “We consider a death of violent cause and in an indeterminate manner, with the findings and studies carried out so far, pending the results of toxicological studies. Therefore, we suggest a thorough police-judicial investigation.”

The results of the toxicological tests will take at least 10 days, according to Inacif.

The complaint of the father of Esmeralda Richiez

In the victim’s father’s complaint, filed with the Public Ministry, he says that the teacher put five pills in a drink without Esmeralda’s consent.

With the pain of parents who will never get over the death of their daughter, they say, now it is their turn to fight for justice.

emerald richiez

After the imposition of the coercive measure on the professor and the cousin this Monday, the Richiez family lawyer, Raymundo Rosario, said he was satisfied with the precautionary measure and was awaiting the toxicological results so that the investigation could be deepened.