The Supreme Court in Madrid has upheld a 20-year sentence for a man who deliberately drove into a group of twenty young people outside a club in Arenal, injuring four of them.
In the early hours of April 6, 2019, Gerardo J.I. and a group of friends got into an argument with another group at the club. He had a fight with one of this other group outside the club and left, shouting that he was going to kill the other person.
Some ten minutes later, by which time the club had closed, a large group of young people were outside. Gerardo J.I.'s friends appeared driving at high speed and in the wrong direction. Behind their car was another - being driven by Gerardo J.I. It had been stolen and was also being driven at high speed. Moreover, it was being driven "with the intention of causing the death of the people congregated there".
He drove into them and ended up crashing into a fence in front of a building that was under construction. He ran off and was arrested two weeks later.
The court heard a plea that he suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and had been drinking and taking drugs before the incident. However, the court determined that it had not been proven that his faculties were impaired. At his trial, he said that "at no time" did he drive into the group with the intention of causing harm. He maintained that the car's brakes failed.
The Supreme Court judges concluded: "We do not say that the defendant acted with the exclusive and clear and determined purpose of ending the lives of the four people who were injured, but that he acted with indifference to the injuries that he could cause, not only to the physical integrity but also to the lives of the victims."