QCOSTARICA – “La Sicaria”, a 26-year-old woman who on social media claimed to kill “anyone for ¢50,000”, was found guilty of seducing a man to murder him in a lookout point of San Juan de Dios de Desamparados, in 2017.
Carolina del Carmen Requene, a single mother of three children aged three, seven and ten, is identified with the nickname of La Sicaria. Her guilt was confirmed by the magistrates of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice on September 24, when deciding an appeal by Requene’s lawyer.
However, the number of years that she must serve in prison is still pending, an aspect that will be discussed in a new trial. On February 24, 2020, the Desamparados Trial Court had sentenced Requene to 30 years in prison for the murder of 26-year-old Marvin Eduardo Ávila Quirós.
This crime was perpetrated between the night of Saturday 11 and the early hours of Sunday, February 12, 2017.
The gang that conquered men in bars
Shortly after turning 22, Carolina Requene began to be investigated by agents of the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) of Heredia, as an alleged member of a gang that was dedicated to conquering men in bars, with the purpose of assaulting them.
After seducing the victims, the women proposed they be taken home or a motel, where they drugged their victims to steal their valuables, such as watches, cell phones, or cash. This group was dismantled in August 2018.
While that investigation was being carried out, the alias of La Sicaria emerged as one of the suspects of killing Marvin Eduardo Ávila with three bullets, in February 2017.
After identifying who La Sicaria was, officers from the Homicide section of the OIJ realized that she had a relationship with an individual with the surname Ávila, 32, who was in jail for murder and who, in addition, was linked to a group dedicated to committing online scams from the La Reforma prison.
Presumably, Carolina Requene also dabbled as a computer hacker.
The detectives learned that this prisoner had a conflict with the victim Marvin Eduardo Ávila, because he allegedly did not give him part of a money product of a scam.
Apparently, for this reason, the detainee asked Requene to act, according to the case file. This aspect was confirmed by the OIJ officers when Marvin Ávila’s best friend, a man named Rojas, told them: “Marvin participated in a scam in which he received a large amount of money, a part which corresponded to Ávila was left unpaid, which caused a serious conflict between them that culminated in Ávila’s order to kill Marvin”.
Both relatives and friends of the deceased confirmed to the authorities that the relationship between Carolina Requene and Marvin Ávila was very fast and lasted only 11 days. They met in the first days of February 2017.
Deadly invitation
During the murder trial, friends of the victim revealed that, on Saturday, February 11, 2017 (the day of the murder), Carolina Requene insistently asked Marvin Ávila to take her out. Finally, he agreed and went on the deceased’s motorcycle to a lookout point.
According to the Court of Appeal of Criminal Sentence, “before leaving, he told his friends that if something happened to him, it was because of Carolina Requene, because the man in prison claimed that he was dating his girlfriend and some witnesses called (during the night) and they heard that he was with her in the lookout point where his body appeared ”.
For the Public Ministry, the participation of Carolina Requene as the woman who seduced the victim to murder him was clear.
“Noticing the physical attraction that the victim felt towards her, she contacted him by phone (…). The accused here invited him out, agreeing to meet in an undetermined place. (…) The victim enlisted and left on his green Kawasaki motorcycle, with which he traveled to the agreed place, where he met with the accused, who using the trust and feeling that the victim was holding towards her, convinces him to accompany her to the strategically defined lookout point agreed upon with the rest of the executors, where they overpowered him and, using a revolver-type firearm, caliber 38, they shot him at the at least three opportunities at the level of the head and in the right shoulder, injuries that caused his death at the site”.
During the trial, court also heard two intervened phone calls by Requene between May 10 and 15, 2018.
In one call, “La Sicaria” spoke with her mother and a friend of hers about the murder. “The situation is getting hot,” Requene said in a recording while commenting that she was going into hiding. At that time, she changed her address from Los Guido to the La Cruz neighborhood in La Unión, Cartago, where the police detained her on August 29, 2018.
At the trial, witnesses verified that Requene on social networks disclosed that she was a killer for hire and was willing to kill. A man with the last name Morales said: “She said that she killed anyone for ¢50,000 colones (…). She showed us the weapon that she always carried, I think it was a 38 caliber revolver”.
Also, another witness surnamed Rojas stated at trial: “The weapon she was carrying was a 38 long barrel.”
However, defense Mario Alberto Quesada maintained that, during the trial, it was never possible to prove that his client was the one who used the weapon, much less that she was a killer for hire.
Following the sentence handed down by the Goicoechea Criminal Sentencing Appeal Court on October 14, 2020, finding Requene as the perpetrator of the homicide and Quesada not satisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal, he tried to prove Requene’s innocence through an appeal in the Third Chamber.
However, the criminal magistrates, after analyzing the case, confirmed Requene’s responsibility in the homicide and, at the same time, endorsed that the matter be returned to the Desamparados Trial Court for sentencing. There is still no date.
“The only thing they (the Desamparados court) will have to resolve is the substantiation of the sentence based on what the Court of Appeal said. They formed a judgment of conviction in relation to the facts that were considered proven. Now, precisely, what is missing is that little detail of whether it was a qualified or simple homicide. The sentence is final as to the guilt. The expectation that we manage is that it be treated as a simple homicide and that, from that, a sentence of 12 years to 18 years is handled,” said Quesada.
Requene had no judicial record in Costa Rica. She was born in Nicaragua and currently has permanent resident status in the country.
