|
    - Photo via William Creighton webpage- |
|||
 You
Might
Also Like    
     |
Published on Monday, May 23, 2022
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The San José Criminal Court found nine individuals guilty of creating a gang to kidnap and murder U.S. citizen, William Sean Creighton in 2018. He owned a sportsbook firm in Costa Rica.
The Prosecutor's Office against Drug Trafficking and Related Crimes charged 11 people in the Creighton murder case. Some were sentenced to between 25 and 65 years in prison.
Of the 11, only one man, surnamed Sánchez-Gamboa, was acquitted.
Before the trial, in February, a man surnamed Ford-Dowman, also a member of the gang, was sentenced to 33 years in prison, because he pleaded guilty and chose to submit to a short trial.
For seven of the gang members, the court ordered a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison for the crimes of kidnapping, violent robbery and illicit association.
The people charged were identified with the surnames Morales-Vega, two people surnamed Vega-Aguirre, Martínez-Chacón, Solís-Chaves, Sanabria-Abarca, Aguirre-Leal.
The prosecutor requested sentences of 50 years in prison for the crime of kidnapping, plus 15 years in prison for the crime of aggravated robbery and assembling a gang to commit a crime.
However, the penal code allowed maximum prison sentences to be reduced from 65 to 50 years in jail.
Two other men, also gang members, surnamed Jirón-López and Medrano-Vargas, were found guilty of participating only in the kidnapping, for which they were sentenced to 35 years of 25 years in prison respectively.
The Prosecutor proved that the gang members knew that the victim's family possessed a high income (generated by the Creighton company). They had planned to kidnap the U.S. citizen and asked for $5 million or its equivalent in bitcoins as payment for his release.
"It is believed that to achieve the plan, the defendants carried out actions such as surveillance and follow-up of the victim," the Prosecutor's Office said in their statement.
According to the investigations, on the night of September 24, 2018, the gang traveled in two cars to surveil Creighton.
That night, two gang members,
Jirón-López and Medrano-Vargas, who were
working as Traffic Police officers at
that time, were traveling on their
official motorcycles (assigned to do
their police duties) and followed
Creighton.
The
victim was commuting by car, from
his work, located in San
Pedro District,
heading towards Curridabat
Canton. Both
places are in San José Province. When
Creighton traveled near Curridabat,
he was intercepted by Jirón and
Medrano, who used their position as
Traffic Police officers. They got
the U.S. Citizen to pull over. The
other men were nearby, arrived at
the scene and threatened Creighton
with weapons and hit him. Then they
kidnapped and hid Creighton at
Aguirre-Leal's house, located
in Trinidad
District. According
to the Prosecutor's Office, one of
the gang members, Ford, stole the
victim's car to get rid of the
evidence. He is the same man who was
convicted in February after he
declared himself guilty of driving
Creighton's car to Heredia
Province, where
he crashed and escaped from the
scene. The men
called Creighton’s contacts
demanding rescue payment or
otherwise, they would kill him. The
men conned $950,800 in bitcoins. To
avoid being discovered, the suspects
killed Creighton. They took his body
to Quepos
Beach in
Puntarenas Province, and hid it in
the municipal cemetery, Prosecutor
said. In
September 2018, the gang leader
Morales-Vega traveled to Panama and
then Cuba, where he remained in
hiding. Then, he traveled to Spain
in November 2018. Two
other gang members, Solís-Chaves and
Vega-Aguirre traveled to Spain to
live with Morales-Vega. Another
gangster Aguirre-Leal received part
of the money and proceeded to pay
the rest of the suspects. In
January 2019, with the cooperation
of Spanish authorities,
Morales-Vega, Solís-Chaves and
Vega-Aguirre were arrested in Spain.
While in Costa Rica, agents of the
Judicial Investigation Organization
detained the remaining gang members. In
September 2019, Creighton's body was
found in the Quepos Beach cemetery.
According to the report, the cause
of death was a homicide due to
suffocation. In
December 2019, the detained in Spain
were extradited to Costa Rica to
face the trial.
------------
  
         |
||
|