Court: Burgos Guilty of Murder
by Rod Hughes
SAN JOSE–It’s all over but the automatic mandatory review of the trial record by an appellate court. Former public defender Luis Fernando Burgos, accused of strangling his wife and transporting her body to a remote dumping site, is guilty and the prosecution’s plea for a maximum sentence of 35 years is granted.
(See articles 1301, 1343 and 1345 for background)
Co-defendant Zulay Rojas, a former prosecutor for the court, was sentenced to two years probation for covering up evidence before she finally came forward to tell of Burgos’s confession to her on the day of the murder. During that probation period, she will remain free only if she commits no further misdeeds.
The three female magistrates making up the panel of judges found that Burgos was a violent, controling person whose abusiveness escalated from their courtship until he strangled his wife, legal assistant Maureen Hidalgo, at their condo on July 11, 2006. They also found that cell phone calls he made came from locations that completely contradicted his alibi for the day of her disappearance.
While acknowleging the lack of forensic evidence, the tribunal gave credence to the prosecution witnesses when they testified to his having confessed his homicide. They also found his delay in informing authorities of Maureen’s disappearance and his agitation during the time until her body was discovered telling evidence.
All during the hour it took the three judges to read their findings, Burgos kept his head down as if studying the table before him, his face impassive. It is possible that, being a public defense lawyer, the outcome did not surprise him. The verdict itself was written with an uncustomary lack of legalistic language and was well organized.
The family of Maureen Hidalgo was also granted 136 in damages for the equivalent of wrongful death. Her parents told the daily La Nacion that they ‘feel that Maureen will rest in peace now.”
The judges did not buy the testimony of a psychiatrist who said that Zulay Rojas was “paralyzed by fear and nerves” as the reason she did not come forward to denounce the murder sooner. The magistrates cited telephone records turned up by the judicial investigators indicating that she called Burgos repeatedly after the murder. Moreover, despite the denial by the psychiatrist that Rojas was only a distant friend of Burgos, they cited e-mails in “affectionate” terms that passed between the Rojas and Burgos.
Commentary: Even if the Burgos guilty verdict should be overturned, the trial could well serve as a cautionary tale for young women. Knowing that Burgos was abusive, Maureen Hidalgo went ahead to marry him. Perhaps, as some testimony indicated, he had threatened her if she did not. Or, perhaps she felt that, as so many before her, she could “change him with love.” Human beings DO change over the years, but is it worth the misery until they do? And they do not always change for the better…