The final day of the trial for the transhomicide of Tehuel de la Torre was filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand, the arguments of the prosecution, the plaintiffs, and the defense before the Second Criminal Court of La Plata reconstructed the circumstances surrounding Tehuel's disappearance. They reviewed evidence, events, expert reports, testimonies, timelines, images, and videos. Several of these elements recalled the difficulties Tehuel faced as a young, poor, trans man in the suburbs, and how, although his body has not been found, the evidence leads to the belief that it was a hate homicide based on gender identity.

Both the prosecution and the plaintiffs requested a life sentence for Luis Alberto Ramos, accused of being a co-perpetrator of aggravated hate homicide based on gender identity. They also requested community reparation measures for transvestite and transgender communities. Ramos's public defense attorney, Natalia Argenti, requested an acquittal, citing a lack of conclusive evidence.

Today, many more people and organizations, as well as mothers of victims from far away, came to the courts to support the trial. The support and organization of activists for sexual diversity, human rights activists, and victims of other institutional and/or patriarchal violence gave each other strength. The sexual diversity group Pride and Struggle was key in the call for justice and support.

🇦🇷🏳️‍⚧️⚖️Mothers of victims are in front of the La Plata Court supporting the demand for justice for #Tehuel
✊🏾📢“We know what it feels like to lose, to die, a child. We ask that justice be up to the task,” said Marta Montero, Lucía’s mother… pic.twitter.com/PKIkfHjzHl

— Presentes Agency (@PresentesLatam) July 26, 2024

Today marked the anniversary of the disappearance of another young woman, Johana Ramallo, a victim of human trafficking, seven years ago. Her mother was present, accompanying Tehuel's mother. Also present was Rosa Bru, the mother of Miguel Bru, a student who disappeared in 1990 in La Plata. Marta Montero, the mother of Lucía Perez, murdered in 2016 in Mar del Plata. In addition to Victoria, the mother of Melody, a young trans woman murdered in Mendoza; and Mabel, the sister of Sofía Fernández, a trans teacher murdered in a police station in Derqui, where the prime suspects are police officers. They and other relatives of victims gave this day an atmosphere where the emotion of being together mingled with indescribable pain. Absences, injustices, inequalities, demands, and one certainty: unity as power, strength, support. The articulation of resistance to transform a profoundly unequal world in different areas. Among them, access to justice.  

🇦🇷⚖️⁰Mothers and relatives of victims were in front of the La Plata Court accompanying Tehuel's mother and demanding justice for all these crimes.

📢“I am Mabel, sister of Sofía Fernández, the trans girl murdered on April 9, 2023. Murdered, tortured… pic.twitter.com/kBMnU63Mvs

— Presentes Agency (@PresentesLatam) July 26, 2024

Festival and delayed audience

The arguments scheduled for 10:30 a.m. were moved to 1:00 p.m. The morning was a hub of activities, open radio, and a space to hear the voices of trans and trans masculinities. Among them was Say Sacayan, Diana's brother. They complained that they were not heard in court. Mothers of victims also made their voices heard on stage. 

In the afternoon, while the arguments were taking place inside, art, music, a soup kitchen, a parade, a ballroom, and a batucada dance group were on display in the street. A booth belonging to the Ministry of Women and Diversity of the Province of Buenos Aires offered information and the opportunity to take rapid HIV tests.  

Prosecutor's Office: "We understand that Tehuel was murdered by Luis Ramos."

The prosecution team, led by Juan Pablo Caniggia, presented a detailed reconstruction of the events that occurred between the night of March 11 and the early morning of March 12, 2021. "We have established that between 9:00 p.m. on March 11 and 4:33 a.m. on March 12, inside the home at Mansilla 1203, two adult males, identified as Luis Alberto Ramos and Oscar Montes, intentionally caused the death of Tehuel, who identified himself as a man, out of hatred for his gender identity," Caniggia stated.

The Prosecutor's Office warned that although the murder was carried out using methods yet to be determined, " Tehuel was killed by Luis Ramos ." Among the evidence incriminating him, Caniggia cited testimony that places Tehuel with Ramos on the night of his disappearance, an analysis of Tehuel's phone that placed his last known location at Ramos's home, and the findings at the defendant's home: blood stains with traces of Tehuel's DNA, remains of his jacket, and the casing of his cell phone, both burned. Caniggia also highlighted Ramos' escape after the investigation began as evidence of his guilt.

"While it is true that we have no way of determining how this atrocious crime against Tehuel's humanity was carried out, we have no doubt that the defendant was one of the perpetrators ," the prosecutor emphasized. Caniggia also emphasized Ramos's violent personality, mentioned by various witnesses and the experts who interviewed him. He also highlighted his transphobic expressions, citing testimony from his ex-partner and other witnesses.

"I know he didn't like men being with men, and women with women. That made him angry," Ramos's ex-partner recounted at the trial. She also recounted the beatings she received from him, to the point of losing a pregnancy, and accused him of sexually abusing her child.

"Ramos referred to him as a boy- girl "

Another witness, a fellow activist in the MST—a space where Ramos and Tehuel met—described how Ramos often said Tehuel “ was a waste of a woman for having become a man.” “When Tehuel wasn't present, Ramos referred to him as “boy-girl . ” He denied his identity,” the Prosecutor's Office emphasized.

For Caniggia and his team, there was an asymmetrical power relationship between the perpetrator and Tehuel's vulnerable state. Ramos was his friend and role model, and Tehuel was in dire financial straits and couldn't find work. "Tehuel had taken Ramos as a role model. The defendant took advantage of that. As an expert witness said yesterday, Tehuel was a victim of cisnoring. He was fighting for recognition, and he was left exposed to the wolves, where his life was lost .

What happens in a trial if there is no body or autopsy: background

One of the greatest challenges of the case is the absence of the victim, explained Prosecutor Caniggia. "But that does not absolve the accused of responsibility. It is not essential for a conviction in a homicide case that a body be found and an autopsy be performed," he said, given the wealth of factual evidence. In this regard, he cited other convictions for the homicide of missing persons. One of them was the conviction of the perpetrators of Miguel Bru, a journalism student who disappeared, tortured, and murdered at the 9th Police Station in La Plata on August 17, 1990. His mother, Rosa Bru, and his colleagues continue to ask themselves, "Where is Miguel?" Rosa was with Tehuel's mother at this trial yesterday and today.  

The prosecutor also cited crimes against humanity as an example of state terrorism. He cited a fragment of the transphobia ruling in the June 13, 2019, transfemicide case against Marcela Chocobar , to highlight the harm caused by the crime of disappearance.

There were other references to other cases involving transvestites and trans people, such as the ruling on the transvesticide of Diana Sacayán and the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Vicki Hernandez in Honduras. 

The prosecutor concluded his argument: "I request that Ramos be sentenced to life imprisonment, based on the methodology and concealment of the body, as a co-perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide due to hatred based on gender identity." He also requested the implementation of a specific protocol for searching for missing LGBTI+ persons, with a focus on sexual and gender diversity. He also requested that the provincial government declare a social emergency in response to violence due to prejudice against transvestite and trans people.

"I hope this conviction will not only bring justice to Tehuel and his family, but will also send a clear message to society that violence against transvestites and trans people will not be tolerated," the prosecutor concluded. He concluded by asking, "Where is Tehuel?" The entire courtroom applauded.  

Complaint: "Ramos kills Tehuel and finds a confluence of all the hatred he felt."

The complaint representing Tehuel's mother, Norma Nahuelcurá, comprised of attorneys Flavia Centurión and Cristian González, Pilar Rodríguez Genin, and María Dolores Amaya, echoed the prosecutor's position and elaborated on the aggravating factor of hatred based on gender identity. "Ramos never recognized Tehuel as a masculinity ," González stated, also highlighting the asymmetrical relationship between Ramos, 37, and Tehuel, 21. One was a leader of a social movement, a leader who showed compassion and was willing to help. The other was an activist.

The plaintiffs' lawyers emphasized the cruelty of the crime, associating it with hatred toward the LGBTI+ community. "Violence against the LGBTI+ community has a unique quality: cruelty and viciousness that is intended to leave an indelible mark. It's as if the victim's body were a second hostage to their hatred," González argued. She explained that in this case, Ramos not only denied the possibility of her existence but also that of her remains so that the family could grieve.

"This is doing something to the family and to society," he said. And looking at the court, he stated: "You have the opportunity to set a jurisprudential precedent and make this society feel that the institutions that purport to regulate interpersonal relationships can adapt to the current times."

The plaintiff was forceful in his request: "We do not hesitate to say that Luis Alberto Ramos is guilty of homicide aggravated by hatred of gender identity, and therefore we request that he be sentenced to life imprisonment." 

She joined the call for the implementation of a protocol for searching for trans people. The complaint also requested "that the three provincial branches be urged to comply with the Diana Sacayán law, which is the trans employment quota ." "If Tehuel had had a formal job, he surely wouldn't have exposed himself to a wolf like that ," González said. She also concluded her argument with a question that resonates throughout the community: "Where is Tehuel?"

Defense: "We don't know exactly what happened"

Ramos's defense attorney, Natalia Argenti, questioned the solidity of the evidence presented by the prosecution and the plaintiff. "When I read the case file, I say: I don't know what happened here. Well, I'm going to the trial, and I still don't have the answer," Argenti said. "Today we won't know what happened," she added, raising the possibility of multiple alternative scenarios.

The lawyer raised various hypotheses about what could have happened to Tehuel, including a fight with Montes, an accident, or even the possibility that Tehuel is still alive. Argenti harshly criticized the quality of the investigation and questioned the preservation of the crime scene.

"Ramos is such a genius that he gets rid of a body and the gun but leaves all the evidence in the house for them to come looking for? I can't understand it ," the defense attorney argued. "If I'm burning, I'll burn everything. If I'm hiding a body, I'll hide it with the jacket and the phone," she added, questioning the logic of the evidence presented.

Regarding the aggravating circumstance of hatred for gender identity, Argenti categorically rejected it: "We really can't think that Ramos, if he killed him, killed him out of hatred for his gender identity, because he has known him since 2018, and from 2018 to 2021 he was his friend." The defense argued that Ramos and Tehuel maintained a friendship and that Ramos had accepted his gender identity. However, all the testimony heard throughout the trial indicated exactly the opposite.   

"I think they loved each other; there's no hatred here," Argenti insisted. He said he strongly agreed with and applauded all the achievements of LGBT activists: marriage equality, the gender identity law, the trans quota. "For three years, she prepared the ground and wanted to kill him out of hatred for what Tehuel had chosen and Ramos had supported him? That's an argument that can't be validated," he concluded, calling for his client's acquittal.

The defense reiterated its call for Ramos' acquittal, arguing that his guilt could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

At the end of the hearing, Ramos was given the opportunity to say a few final words, but the defendant chose not to exercise that right.

The Court set the date for the verdict: August 30th at 1:00 p.m. Although it is generally expected to be read within five business days, the judges will take more than a month to do so, arguing that they have a lot of work. The delay is striking given this case involves a victim and a defendant.  

March for Johana, Tehuel and victims

At the end of the hearing, a large march marched from the trial venue to the federal courts in La Plata to demand justice for Tehuel and Johana Ramallo, among other victims of violence. Johana's mother, Marta, accompanied Tehuel's mother, Norma, throughout the hearings. Today marks the seventh anniversary of this young woman's disappearance. 

Johana was last seen on July 26, 2017. Her mother claims that in addition to being a victim of trafficking, Johana was also the victim of a narco-femicide at the hands of criminal networks. Remains of the young woman's body were found on the coast of Berisso in 2018. She has not yet been able to attend a trial, which has only recently been scheduled. 

At the corner of the federal courthouse, a sculpture commemorates Johana and the date of her disappearance. There, Norma acknowledged that today was a hearing in which she felt very supported but also hurt by what she heard in the defense's argument. "It was a very tough two weeks," she told Presentes. "All the evidence is there. I have faith in the verdict." 

The day concluded with a release of purple balloons, attended by mothers and family members of victims of violence.