A jury found a 75-year-old Edmonton man guilty of second-degree murder on Monday in the 2016 killing of his son-in-law, 38-year-old Armando Cosmea-Aspillaga.
On June 17, 2016, Roberto Robles and his wife came to the couple’s home to look after their granddaughter, as Cosmea-Aspillaga had gone to work and his wife, Flavia, headed to Calgary.
The jury accepted the Crown’s theory that Robles ambushed his son-in-law in his home in the southwest neighbourhood of Riverbend. Cosmea-Aspillaga was later found to have five pellet gun wounds, including in his forehead and behind his ear. He had also been stabbed multiple times.
“He brutally killed and murdered my son,” said Cosmea-Aspillaga’s mother, Georgina Aspillaga, through a translator outside the courthouse after the verdict on Monday. “We don’t understand how these things happened with my son.
“They took… a piece of my soul.”
Aspillaga and Cosmea-Aspillaga’s sister, Adelaida Puente, came to Edmonton from Havana for the trial.
“My brother’s not coming back but at least the jury realized that Robles killed my brother and that he did it with some intention to kill him,” Puente said.
When police arrived at Cosmea-Aspillaga’s home after the attack, Robles let the officers inside his home and provided them with the knife and the pellet gun.
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Robles’ defence lawyer, Mike Danyluik, had argued his client should be found guilty of manslaughter, instead of second-degree murder.
“He served himself up on a platter,” he said in court last week. “Why would he do that if he intends on killing someone?”
“There was no motive, just bitter distaste,” Danyluik said.
During Robles’ trial, court heard Cosmea-Aspillaga met his future wife — Robles’ daughter — at a wedding in Cuba in 2009. The couple began a relationship and were married a year later.
Cosmea-Aspillaga later immigrated to Edmonton and the couple’s daughter was born in 2013.
“My brother was a good man and the only thing he ever did his whole life was to love his family and friends, and when his daughter was born, his daughter was the light of his life,” Puente said.
Aspillaga said she and Puente have only been allowed to see their granddaughter twice since coming to Canada: in a police station and at a session with a child psychologist.
“The only thing we would ever want to give to her is love like my brother gave to her,” Puente said. “We would never do any harm to her.”
Danyluik told the court Robles believed Cosmea-Aspillaga had exploited his daughter to come live in Canada. The couple had separated although they still lived together. Danyluik said Robles wanted Cosmea-Aspillaga to move out.
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In court last week, Robles could be heard crying as Danyluik recounted an interview with police that was recorded on video. In it, Robles admits to the killing, calling it a “huge mistake.”
The judge said Robles’ parole eligibility would be decided on Aug. 1. A second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
The judge said he did not consider Robles to be a flight risk. Robles was given two weeks to get his affairs in order and must turn himself in to custody on July 9.
–With files from Global News’ Albert Delitala and Kim Smith