In October 2011, Laura Moreno and Jessy Quintero were arrested, accused of
perjury and covering a crime. According to the prosecutors' office there is "strong evidence" that allow them to infer that these two young women participated in the murder of Luis Andrés Colmenares. On May 31, 2012, Antonio González, main prosecutor, was removed from the case by Eduardo Montealegre, General Attorney, after frequent clashes with Jaime Granados, defense attorney of Laura Moreno, and substituted by
Martha Lucía Zamora. González stated he had full confidence in Zamora's abilities to win the case, that he was proud of delivering a case already in trial while it was almost closed when he received and said he will keep silence about some aspects of the trial because of ethics. On June 6, 2012, the prosecution stated that a witness of the events, Wilmer Ayola, came forward, claiming that the night of the events he saw a truck stopping in front of the park where the water channel is located. According to the witness, Luis Colmenares walked away from the truck and Laura Moreno ran after him and slapped Colmenares in the face. Carlos Cárdenas exited the truck and hit Colmenares in the head with a bottle and then Cárdenas and a group of friends kicked the victim while on the ground. After failed efforts by the group to reanimate Colmenares, they carried away the body in the truck. Ayola claimed he came forward because he had been threatened. He also explained that he was afraid because a partner that was with him that night, whom he identified only by the name of Cristian, had disappeared. Ayola added that Cárdenas offered one million
pesos (approximately $500) to Cristian in exchange for their silence and that he received part of the money. The same day Carlos Cárdenas was detained on charges of aggravated homicide. He claimed it was a false accusation and that there were people interested in damaging his reputation and the well being of his family. The prosecutors stated in the trial files that they had intercepted conversations between Cárdenas and Laura Moreno about his family having an "important contact" in the General Attorney's Office so she should keep her calm. The mother of Carlos Cárdenas, María del Pilar Gómez, hired a lawyer, Aidé Acevedo, to press Armando Novoa, Director of the National Prosecution Office, into changing the prosecutor in charge of the case. Both are indicted with
obstruction of justice. The prosecution intercepted cell phone calls between both women talking about the best way to change the course of the case. On June 14, 2012, Daniel Teleki, attorney for Jessy Quintero, renounced after claiming he and his family had been threatened on social networks. On June 19, 2012, the prosecutor explained that Cristian, the other witness identified by Wilmer Ayola, had been located and that he was looking for protection from the police. Cristian said he had taken pictures of Moreno's truck taken with his cellphone the night of the events. The following day, Cárdenas and Morenos' lawyer, Jaime Granados, came forward explaining that Ayola worked as
security guard in a building complex far from the site of the events and that records proved he was working there that night. He accused Ayola of perjury. In a radio interview, the following day, Ayola explained that he had escaped his working place and that he signed the records after returning to work at 5 a.m. claiming he had proof of this. That very same day, on June 20, 2012, the former General Attorney of Colombia,
Mario Iguarán was hired by Cárdenas family as defense lawyer. On June 28, 2012, the
Attorney General,
Eduardo Montealegre stated that the initial prosecutor, Antonio González, expelled from the case after pressure from defense lawyers, and other auxiliary attorneys involved in the case, had to be protected from an assassination attempt detected by the CTI (Technical Investigation Team or
Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación) and that his security scheme had been reinforced. The same day, Jaime Granados, defense lawyer for Cárdenas, denounced penally González for hiding blood samples taken from Colmenares body, but offered no explanations about the motives of the attorney. González stated that this was a regular procedure.
False Witnesses On October 22, 2013, in an interview with RCN news, Wilmer Ayola confessed he had been paid to provide false testimony in support of the prosecutor's murder theory. According to Ayola, he had been paid by the father of the Luis Andrés Colmenares. He also implicated the former prosecutor, Antonio González, as participant in the complot of multiple false witnesses. "Many people paid for this, friends of González, friends of the Colmenares family. Every witness was on the payroll". == Ruling ==