The judicial office for permanent care services in the judicial district of La Vega province imposed three months of pre-trial detention against a Haitian citizen accused of causing the death of his partner of the same nationality, on January 15 in Jarabacoa.
A press release sent by the Public Ministry indicates that Judge Katia Núñez ordered Michael Bernalis in pre-trial detention, accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of that city as responsible for this fact. The coercion measure must be carried out in the public prison of La Concepción in this province.
In the request for a coercive measure, the La Vega Prosecutor’s Office states that, according to the body removal certificate, Gueroline Pierre Louis, 32, died of asphyxiation by immersion. The body was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif) for an autopsy.
It also indicates that Pierre Louis’ body was found by National Police agents in an irrigation canal in the La Trinchera sector of Jarabacoa municipality after receiving a phone call while on duty at the detachment in that area. Town ..
According to a witness, on the day of the incident, around 6:30 in the morning, she saw the accused leaving the canal where the body was found and, when asked about the victim, she told him that she had left.
While another witness said that the day before the event, around 9:00 pm, he heard the couple arguing and then the victim left the house saying that Bernalis threatened to kill her and that will move out of the house.
The Public Ministry granted the case the provisional legal classification of the violation of articles 302, 309-1, 309-2, 309-3, 295, 296, 297 and 298 of the Dominican Criminal Code, amended by Law 24-97, on gender and domestic violence , which punish aggravated gender-based violence and murder.
The judicial body supported the request for coercive measures on the various documentary, expert and testimonial evidence that was considered sufficient to impose pre-trial detention on the accused.