Jensen Medina Cardona, charged with murder of Arellys Mercado Ríos, will be released on bail

Judge Fajardo, Irmarie Colón Massó, issued an order approving an urgent motion requesting amendments to the arrest warrant issued on 23 August 2019 by Vanessa Sánchez robbed, such that Jensen Medina Cardona, charged with murder Arellys Mercado Ríos, will be released on bail tonight, Friday.

According to the court order issued by Colón Massó, the pre-trial detention order was amended and issued according to the Supreme Court in its decision of 4 December.

It also ordered the preliminary services program to coordinate the installation of an electronic handcuff for the supervision of Medina Cardona.

According to the documentation provided by the court administration, the guarantee company is Allegheny Casualty Company, headquartered on Avenida Ponce de León. Medina Cardona borrowed a total of $ 30,000, or 10 percent of the initial $ 300,000 bond issued by Judge Sánchez of the Fajardo Court on August 23, 2019.

The Supreme Court declared on March 10 that the request to increase the bail against Medina Cardona, which was requested by the Department of Justice, was not accepted. The defendant has already lodged bail before the Court’s request to increase the amount.

In December last year, the Court of Appeal revoked the bail increase from $ 300,000 to $ 1,150,000 to Medina Cardona, so Justice went to the Supreme Court in an attempt to reverse the decision.

For his part, lawyer Jorge Gordon Menéndez stressed on January 13, when it was announced that Medina Cardona would drop a trial by the jury, that the “excess” of journalistic information allowed much of the evidence to be presented publicly in during the broadcasts of the preliminary hearing, to the detriment of an impartial and correct opinion on the facts.

Amid legal disputes between the defense and the prosecution, the trial technically began on January 14, when the victim’s cousin sat down to testify, who is a federal agent and was the one the family chose to identify the body to the Institute of Forensic Sciences. .

Court of Appeal ordered, on August 25, the suspension of the trial against Medina Cardona in response to the defense ‘s request for defense challenges the decision of the Court of First Instance to prohibit the defendant from having the trial reimbursed by the jury.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled on November 10 that prosecutors could use in the trial the photo with which a witness identified Medina Cardona as Mercado Ríos’ alleged criminal, stating that no request for reconsideration had been filed. defense.

The Supreme Court also stated that this issue will not be addressed again, after two attempts to reconsider the decision that the identification is valid.

From the preliminary hearing stage, Medina Cardona’s defense tried several times to challenge the process of identifying the accused by the witness.

Finally, the Court of Appeal ruled on November 18 that Medina Cardona’s request to restore the right to a trial by the jury should remain in the hands of the trial judge, Gema González.

The panel of judges consisting of Abelardo Bermúdez Torres, Ivelisse Domínguez Irizarry and Monsita Rivera Marchand argued that Medina Cardona had validly waived her trial by the jury, so she “could not request” the reinstatement of the same right before the Court of Appeal.

The court therefore indicated that the controversy would return to the Court of First Instance, where Judge Gema González could ultimately decide whether the trial would take place by law or by jury under strict “judicial discretion”.

Mercado Ríos’ murder dates back to August 2019, when he was shot in the neck after an argument on Villa Marina Boulevard in Fajardo.

Medina Cardona, 34, who was also in the Fajardo marina, according to the prosecution, is accused of firing the trigger against Mercado Ríos after an argument on a mobile phone.

The prosecutor’s office in this case consists of prosecutors Eduardo Beale, Jaime Perea and Dianette Aymat.

Medina Cardona faces charges of first-degree murder and two violations of the Weapons Law, for which she pleaded not guilty.