The judge in the Yexeira case accepts as evidence another piece with blood on it.

To complete the process of authenticating the evidence, the magistrate noted that the other ICF staff member who received the evidence for analysis would also testify.

Judge Francisco Borelli Irizarry of the Carolina court admitted on Friday the black tarpaulin of Roberto Quiñones Rivera’s van, where the blood stains of his girlfriend Yexeira Torres Pacheco would have appeared, as evidence conditioned by the prosecution.

Borelli Irizarry explained that forensic investigator David Betancourt Quiñones of the Forensic Institute (ICF) had not identified his marks on the object and could not explain why the piece was not complete. He also did not identify any other marks contained on the tarpaulin, which he removed from the vehicle on 16 November 2011.

To complete the process of authenticating the coin, the magistrate said that the other ICF official who had received the coin for analysis still had to testify.

In the continuation of the case against Quiñones Rivera for the death and disappearance of the body of Yexeira, choreographer and dancer of the rapper Miguelito, Betancourt Quiñones explained that he examined the defendant’s white Ford Econoline bus on two occasions to identify the blood hidden in the vehicle.

She also examined a construction level occupied by the police in the bus to try to identify fingerprints.

The first assessment was carried out on 16 November at the ICF in Rio Piedras, at the request of investigating officer Lorimel Aquino Fariña.

He explained, in response to questions from prosecutor Alma Mendez Rios, that he had used the chemical “bluestar” to detect the possible presence of blood on the van.

“Bluestar is an improved formulation of luminol. You can use it over and over again and it doesn’t damage the sample,” said the witness, who testified in the afternoon.

He said that spraying the chemical on the bus “produced a bright luminescence at the back, near the front seats of the bus”. “I took the whole tarpaulin because it was very luminescent and I decided to have it analysed by the laboratory,” he said. He added that he did not want the sample to be diluted or fragmented. He then detected small spots of apparent blood on the inside of the passenger door.

These marks, he said, were on the inside frame of the door, at the back where the door locks, at the base of the rear view mirror and in the middle of the door panel. In his theory of the case on the first day of the trial, prosecutor Mendez Rios said the blood that appeared in the vehicle came from the body of a woman who was the daughter of Victor Torres Santiago and Iris Pacheco Calderon, Yexeira’s parents. He also said that analysis of the blood traces found in the bus will show that Yexeira bled to death on the passenger seat and was then dragged into the back of the van.

False number plate

In the morning, Officer Jose Dennis Rivera of the police stolen vehicle division, who removed the fake tag from the defendant’s van on November 10, 2011, testified.

In the morning, Officer Jose Dennis Rivera of the police stolen vehicle division, who removed the fake tag from the defendant’s van on November 10, 2011, testified. The witness explained that there were inconsistencies between the date on the vehicle’s driving licence and the tag that authorized the vehicle to travel on the country’s roads.

The vehicle registration, which was not stamped, indicated that the licence had expired on 31 October 2011, but the label had an effective date of December 2011. “(The licence) was not stamped like when you buy the sticker,” he said. He also noted that the colour of the label was distorted and had an irregular cut in the circle marking the month of December.

After taking the label, he went to an office of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, where he was told that the label was fake. Jorge Gordon Menendez attempted to challenge the officer’s work by pointing out that he never asked to see the new vehicle registration and insisting that because of the ease with which the witness removed the tag, it could have been affixed to the vehicle’s window shortly before he took it.

Quiñones Rivera is currently serving a 42-month prison sentence for the false tag and the illegal appropriation of a police bullet-proof waistcoat.