Oct
31
Ms Porto originally told investigators that after leaving Mr Basterra’s apartment, she had gone to her own flat and spent the rest of the day there with her daughter. But CCTV footage showed her driving off that afternoon with Asunta in her car, as well as a witness who saw her leaving the country house she owned that evening.
The prosecution said that Ms Porto had strangled the girl once she was unable to resist due to the effects of the drug, before dumping the body, which was found with a length of rope identical to rope found at the country house. The prosecution could not be sure that Mr Basterra had left his house to assist in the actual killing but he was found guilty by the jury for his role in drugging the girl.
Mr Basterra’s computer was revealed to contain photographs of his daughter in a risqué bodice and his DNA “from a bodily fluid other than semen” was found on her underwear. Ms Porto claimed that a few months before Asunta’s death she had found an intruder attacking the child in her bedroom one night, but the man ran off when she challenged him.
The jury said the two had displayed malice aforethought and recommended the maximum sentence possible, which could be up to 20 years.
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