Gilberto Chamba
Gilberto Antonio Chamba Jaramillo (born 1963) is an Ecuadorian serial killer, convicted of murdering nine people in Ecuador and Spain.
Gilberto Chamba | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gilberto Antonio Chamba Jaramillo 1963 (age 56–57) |
| Other names | The Monster of Machala |
| Conviction(s) | Murder |
| Criminal penalty | 45 years in prison |
| Details | |
| Victims | 9 |
Span of crimes | 1988–2004 |
| Country | Ecuador, Spain |
| State(s) | El Oro, Catalonia |
Date apprehended | Module 6, Center Penitenciari de Quatre Camins |
Known as the "Monster of Machala," he was convicted of several murders in south-west Ecuador, but was released under an amnesty, and moved to Spain where he committed a murder. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison in Spain on November 5, 2006.[1]
Crimes
According to several media sources, Chamba told the police each of the steps he took before, during and after each murder.
He owned a taxi with which, from 1988 to 1993, he toured the streets of Machala in search of clients. The clients he looked for all young students who were by themselves.
The agents who captured Chamba, doubtful of his guilt, tried to confuse him by taking him to places distant from the actual murder sites; however, with surprising coldness, Chamba corrected them and lead back to the locations.
A chronicle in the newspaper Spanish El País presented the testimony of Fausto Téran, a retired policeman who participated in the capture of the "Monster of Machala":
According to what Chamba confessed, he did not practice vaginal penetration of his victims. Practically they were skewered with an instrument similar to a cane, which had been expressly ordered to be manufactured. To many, he threatened them with such violence that the instrument came out through their mouths.
Condemnation in Ecuador
Of his ten victims, two were minors. Because of the testimony of a sex worker, one of the two women who survived his attack, criminal proceedings could be initiated against Chamba, which eventually led to his sentence of 16 years in prison.
However, he served only 7 of these years, as he benefited from a law which lowered the sentences of well-behaved prisoners in half, as well as receiving another year due to the Great Jubilee, when he was given amnesty.[2]
Migration to Spain
On November 9, 2000, after serving his sentence and having his police record cleaned – a benefit only possible in Ecuador –, Gilberto, who until then was married and had daughters with his wife Mariela, decided to move to Spain. He took a flight to Amsterdam, and from there he traveled to the Barajas airport in Madrid, where two of his sisters were waiting for him.
Since then, Chamba maintained several jobs that varied between masonry and being a doorman building of his neighbours, where he lived with his family and casual girlfriends.
By September 2004, Chamba finally registered as a parking attendant for the entertainment complex Illa de I 'Oci, located near the Faculty of Law, in the town of Lleida. There he served not only as a caretaker, but also collaborated with the clerks who cleaned the movie theaters.
The new murder
The six years of apparent tranquility for the Chamba family, which suffered greatly during their confinement in Ecuador, ended when Gilberto was arrested on December 1, 2004, accused of having raped and murdered María Isabel Bascuñana, a student of the local university's Faculty of Law.
The last time she was seen alive was the night of November 23. Her parents last spoke to her at approximately 10 PM, when she told them that she was not going to have dinner at home. Her body was found two days later, a few streets away from the cinema. She had a handkerchief tied around her neck, with garbage bags wrapped around her body. She had been brutally raped.
Soon after, several theories arose about her death. Some speculated that it was a crime of passion, others - revenge, but it was her friends which gave the necessary clues to catch the killer.
The clues that gave it away
Within the investigations carried out by the Mossos d'Esquadra, testimonies from Bascuñana's friends were compiled, which gave enough evidence to arrest Chamba.
According to the agents, María told them that Chamba constantly harassed her while she was dropping off or picking up her car from the movie theater. That version was complemented by those of other girls, who indicated that Chamba regularly asked for their phone numbers with the excuse that if something bad happened with their cars he would call them immediately.
However, many of them received sexually harassing calls, and the only possible explanation was that the parking attendant made the calls. This hypothesis was confirmed when agents found María's phone. After making records of the incoming and outcoming calls hours before and after the murder, they found that the victimizer had made two calls to phone sex services. The calls lasted between five and six minutes.
That was one of the clues that led agents closer to consider Chamba as the main suspect. In addition to this, the agents alleged in the trial to have found garbage bags inside of the glove department of María's vehicle, the same ones that were used to cover her body. They were very similar to the ones used by cleaners in the cinemas to carry the waste, immediately connecting this to Chamba, one of the cleaning assistants.
At first Chamba was detained solely for questioning, as his co-workers, who were called to testify in the process, said that they hadn't noticed anything strange the night of the murder and that the Ecuadorian did not skip his shift. In addition, testimonies from neighbours and acquaintances of Chamba, all in his favour and recounted him as a kind man, denied his guilt.
However, DNA tests on the sperm residue found on the victim's body directly incriminated Chamba, who argued that the police were making everything up to charge him. According to him, the agents took a sperm sample from a condom he had used and then inserted it into María's vagina to indicated him as the culprit.
When the corresponding analyzes and tests were carried out, the prosecutor's office dismissed the argument, which was the main element to incriminating Chamba. He received a sentence of 45 years, divided in 20 years for the murder of María, another 12 for her rape, and another 13 for the attempted rape and murder of a Romanian prostitute who testified against him in court after seeing images of him on local media after his arrest.[3][4]
In addition to this evidence, the prosecutors alleged that Chamba had attempted to conceal information from the police. When first approached by the authorities, he allegedly disclosed his criminal record in Ecuador and an incident in Spain related to the possession of weapons. However, the process proved that the "Monster of Machala" hid his judicial past until collation between the Ecuadorian and catalan police confirmed that he was the same person sentenced in Machala for murders.
Chamba is currently detained at Module 6, Center Penitenciari de Quatre Camins in Catalunya.
References
- "Gilberto Chamba alias the "Moster of Machala": A true history of Alfred Hitchcock" (in Spanish). Quito: "Hoy" Newspaper. 8 November 2006. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014.
- "The pain that the "Monster of Machala" produced never happened" (in Spanish). Quito: Explored.com. 23 October 2006. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014.
- "The "Monster of Machala" was sentenced to 45 years in prison" (in Spanish). Quito: "El Comercio". 10 November 2006. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014.
- "Accumulated penalties against the "Monster of Machala"" (in Spanish). Guayaquil: The Universe. 7 November 2006.