Exclusive: The millionaire payments to a false witness in the Colmenares case: who is he and why did he receive money?
While the entire country followed the minute-by-minute account of the Luis Andrés Colmenares case with horror, the Prosecutor's Office not only gave credibility to a fictional story, but also financed, with public funds, the stay, maintenance, and security of José Wilmer Ayola Lerma, a security guard who ended up becoming a symbol of one of the most scandalously false testimonies in the process.
TL;DR
- José Wilmer Ayola Lerma, a security guard, was sentenced to 8 years in prison for false testimony in the Luis Andrés Colmenares case.
- The prosecution funded Ayola's stay, maintenance, and security, believing his false account of witnessing Colmenares' death.
- Ayola falsely claimed to have seen Carlos Cárdenas assault Colmenares in El Virrey park on October 31, 2010.
- Investigations revealed Ayola was working his security shift at residential complexes during the time he claimed to be at the park.
- Ayola's testimony was contradicted by forensic evidence, including his visual impairments, which made his detailed account impossible.
- He was housed in maximum-security safe houses by the state while providing his false testimony.
- Ayola accepted a plea deal in 2013, admitting to false testimony, procedural fraud, and fraud to subsidies, and was ordered to repay funds.
- His prison benefit was revoked, and he was sent to prison, remembered as a false witness who attempted to mislead the justice system.