Court tries a “perfect crime”

A Barcelona businesswoman’s alleged murder of a former colleague has been dubbed the “perfect crime” at her ongoing trial.

María Ángeles Molina, known as Angie, stands accused of posing as the victim, Ana María Páez, for two years prior to her death on February 19, 2008 in order to open a string of bank accounts and take out insurance policies and loans in her name. The two had met 10 years earlier at the company where they both worked. Molina, who was Páez’s manager, told the court they had “a friendly relationship.”

On the evening of Páez’s death, Molina and the victim had dined together in Barcelona. That night, Páez’s body was found by a cleaner. She had been chloroformed, asphyxiated and sperm had been inserted into her mouth and vagina to simulate a sexual assault, prosecutors said.

On the first day of the trial, the owner of a Barcelona brothel testified that Molina had hired two male prostitutes for the task. “She said she didn’t want sex but had made a bet with friends that she would sleep with a gigolo,” Juan Manuel D. told the court, adding that although he had neither seen the receptacles nor been in the room, he had negotiated the price for a service he described as “out of the ordinary.”

Molina, who denies the charges, claims that on the evening of February 19 she was returning from Zaragoza, where she had lunched with friends, after collecting the ashes of her mother, who had died a year earlier. When the Mossos d’Esquadra went through her cellphone records, they found a call at 8pm from Páez. Molina said that on returning to Barcelona she went to buy a “Cartier watch” for her then-boyfriend, but police say that at 9pm she was 300 meters from Camprodón de Gracía street, where Páez was found. Her ex-boyfriend told investigators that Molina arrived home at 10.30pm, saying that she had damaged her car at a gas station because she forgot to remove the hose. 

Lawyer as a scapegoat

When asked by the prosecution why she had not asked for any of these witnesses to testify on her behalf, Molina replied: “I told my lawyer, but he didn’t do anything about it.” Molina dispensed with her lawyer’s services three weeks ago and has since used him as a scapegoat. Prosecutors suspect it was a ploy to get out of jail given that her two-year provisional detention limit was approaching.

Prosecuting lawyer Fernando Maldonado pointed to a swath of documentation and witnesses that prove Molina’s guilt. But the accused, who has remained cool and combative throughout, was unmoved. Quizzed over the presence of a bottle of chloroform found at her home, Molina said she had bought it for two reasons: as a cleaner for silver candelabra and because her daughter needed it for a “practical class with a rabbit” at her school.

On Tuesday, six bank and insurance employees testified that Molina had come to their branches in 2007 disguised in a wig, posing as Páez. An Axa employee described the hairpiece as “like Cleopatra’s.” A similar one was found next to the body. Molina said she used wigs “for sex games” and had lent one to Páez, which, she claimed, explained the presence of her DNA at the scene.

A seventh witness said that he had sold an investment fund worth 6,000 euros to “the real Ana Páez,” who was accompanied by a curly-haired man who could fit the description of the “dark and South American” prostitutes hired by Molina.

Molina’s defense argued that the accused was earning 7,500 euros a month at the time of the crime, and therefore would not have had motives to obtain the money.

The trial continues.