Irene Quirante
Malaga
Malaga Provincial Court will make a fourth attempt this month to seat a jury and try three men for a fatal 2019 shooting in Marbella, following an extraordinary history of delays and violent pre-trial sabotage.
The trial was originally postponed in November 2025 and rescheduled for April this year. However, proceedings collapsed when one of the principal defendants suffered two separate violent attacks within 24 hours - including a shooting on the eve of his court appearance.
Deadly ambush and 153 days in hospital
The criminal prosecution stems from a targeted ambush on 15 November 2019 inside a residential property in Marbella's Alvarito Playa development.
According to the prosecution, two Romanian defendants lured two Moroccan victims to the house. Inside, one of the accused shot the first man in the chest with a .38 caliber revolver, killing him instantly. The second defendant then shot the surviving victim three times - hitting him in the abdomen, shoulder, and leg. After spending 153 days in intensive care, the surviving victim was left permanently paraplegic.
State prosecutors are requesting sentences totaling 114 years for the three defendants on charges of murder, attempted murder, illegal weapons possession, and membership in a criminal organisation.
Private prosecutions representing the victims' families allege the shooting was a vuelco - a violent rip-off of drugs or cash - and identify a third Spanish defendant as the mastermind, demanding permanent reviewable prison (prisión permanente revisable) for all three. Defense lawyers for the Spanish defendant maintain he acted merely as an intermediary connecting drug buyers and sellers for a €4,500 commission.
Two attacks in 24 hours stall justice
The bizarre sequence of events that derailed the April 2026 trial date began in the early hours of 13 April at the Los Prados industrial estate in Malaga. The 35-year-old defendant reported being ambushed by two hooded assailants on e-scooters who stabbed him in the back with a syringe.
After being treated at hospital and discharged late that morning, he appeared at Malaga’s Ciudad de la Justicia courthouse, where the judge agreed to delay jury selection by 24 hours.
However, at 9pm that same evening, while at a property in Zalea (Pizarra), the same defendant was shot twice in the shoulder and ankle by an unknown gunman, forcing a second emergency hospitalisation and a total suspension of proceedings.
If no further incidents occur, jury selection is set to take place on 19 October, with trial hearings scheduled to run until 22 October.