Father Remains in Pre-Trial Detention Over Daughter's Fatal Fall from Building
Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
At a glance
- A father has been kept in pre-trial detention for his role in his two-year-old daughter's death after she fell from an 11th-floor apartment.
- The investigation revealed the father was driving drunk with a blood alcohol level of 0.85 grams per liter hours before the incident.
- Prosecutors are pursuing a charge of homicide by omission, arguing the father failed in his duty of care, while the defense claims the child was not in the assigned bedroom and the father made an error similar to leaving a window open.
A Santiago court has upheld the pre-trial detention of Jorge Constanzo, the father of a two-year-old girl who died after falling from the 11th floor of a Las Condes apartment building in May. The investigation has charged Constanzo with homicide by omission.
the tribunal again estimated that these facts constitute a crime of homicide by omission, in a figure of eventual intent, which is what the prosecution ultimately seeks. This reaffirms our legal classification, the father in this case simply did not act in the way that corresponded according to his position of guarantor.
Evidence presented indicates that Constanzo was driving under the influence of alcohol hours before the fatal fall, with a blood alcohol content of 0.85 grams per liter. Ezio Braghetto, a gender prosecutor with the Eastern Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office, stated that the court's decision reaffirms their legal classification of the case. "The father, in this case, simply did not act in the way that was appropriate according to his position of guarantor," Braghetto explained.
I am super affected because the defense treats my daughter not by her name, but treats her as a little girl who was in her father's care and I find it an enormous lack of respect, because my daughter has a name and surname.
The mother of the child, Gloria Ortiz, expressed her distress, criticizing the defense's approach. "The defense treats my daughter not by her name, but as a little girl who was in her father's care, and I find it enormously disrespectful because my daughter has a name and surname," she said.
that bedroom was not assigned to Isidora, that was not Isidora's bedroom. It was the third time she had been there, she was just starting the possibility of them being together in the apartment.
Constanzo's defense lawyer, Cristiรกn Santander, argued that the bedroom from which the child fell was not assigned to her and that she was only beginning to spend time at the apartment. He likened the situation to other parental errors, such as leaving a window or pool accessible, or leaving cleaning products within reach. Constanzo will continue to be held at the Casablanca Preventive Detention Center in the Valparaรญso Region.
That is the mistake, the same mistake as leaving a window open or a pool, the same mistake as putting a pot on the front burner, buying gel chlorine and leaving it downstairs.
Originally published by Cooperativa in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.