Video: Brutal murderer Jacobo Piñero walks out of jail a free man

In the midst of all the celebration about the huge marriage equality win in Argentina, on Monday I also wrote a disturbing post ("Outrage in Spain: Man held in brutal murder of gay couple is set free after 4 years in prison").

Basically, I said Jacobo Piñero (right) walked out of jail a free man when a court in Vigo, Spain, invalidated a 20-year conviction for arson.

Last year, a jury in Vigo absolved all charges against him and almost set him free. The arson charge was tacked on at the last minute by a judge who could not believe the jury would set him free.

What did Piñero do other than set an apartment in fire? Well, let's revisit another post I wrote a year ago ("Spain: Outrage at aquittal of man who stabbed gay couple 57 times and set their bodies on fire").

Hm, the title certainly gives it away but it doesn't nearly describe the violence this man committed against that gay couple:

27 year old Isaac Ali Dani Peréz Triviño was born in Spain. 32 year old Julio Anderson Luciano was born in Brazil. They lived together in the Spanish province of Vigo and were planning to get married.

Both were stabbed to death by Jacobo Piñeiro Rial in their apartment in the early morning of January 13th, 2006. The bodies showed a total of 57 stab wounds, according to forensics.

After killing them, Piñeiro took a shower and cleaned himself up. He filled a suitcase with some of their belongings to make it look like a robbery and then spilled clothing all over the place. He poured alcohol over everything, including his victims' bodies, turned on the gas spigot on the stove, and set everything on fire. The local fire department said that little evidence would have survived if it wasn't for their prompt response to the 5-alarm fire [...] There are no independent witnesses, but police and forensic experts say that the murder rampage began around 4:00am. Apparently, Pérez Triviñio was stabbed first but did not die. Piñeiro then stabbed Anderson Luciano twice while in the couples' room, and 22 more times as he followed his victim out of the room, into a corridor and out to the living room - where he died.

Pérez Triviñio, in the meantime, had locked himself in the room and records show that he was able to call local authorities. The call was cut short when Piñeiro was able to break back into the room and finish him off by stabbing him 35 more times.

In the living room, he tied Anderson Luciano's hands and put a blanket over his body; in the bedroom, he placed a blanket over Pérez Triviñio's head, tied a cable around it, and tethered it to a bed post. He then emptied closets and threw clothes all over the apartment, poured alcohol and set everything on fire.

The fire department arrived soon after Piñero left the apartment and different leads led to his capture.  He was held in police custody for three years until the trial took place last year.  The reason he almost walked out of the courtroom despite confessing to the murders was that he claimed he went temporarily crazy when the couple made sexual advances towards him. The jury bought the gay panic argument and nearly set him free.

Following worldwide outrage about the verdict (and the fact that a man might be convicted for setting an apartment on fire but not for stabbing two men 57 times) a higher court said it would consider an appeal of the verdict and eventually overturned it.  They also set a new trial date for September of this year.

At issue, though, is that penal laws in Spain limit the time someone can be held in custody without being sentenced to four years and, since a court had invalidated his conviction, and Piñero had been held in custody since he was arrested in 2006, the four years were up.

On Monday, Piñero walked out of jail a free man. At least until the new trial.  Here is the video. Truly disturbing.