Santiago.- The Third Collegiate Tribunal of the Judicial District of Santiago sentenced José Alejandro Helena, alias “El Brujo” or “El Mago”, to eight years in prison after finding him guilty of the violent assault and aggression against an elderly man that occurred in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Hospital of Santiago (HOMS), a case that generated national outrage after going viral on social media.
The sentence was handed down after the Public Ministry demonstrated, through testimonial evidence and security camera videos, the participation of the accused in the aggravated robbery and association of wrongdoers.
The event occurred on September 22, 2025, behind the aforementioned health center, when the victim, an elderly man, was intercepted by several individuals traveling in a gray vehicle.
According to investigations, the assailants stripped the elderly man of about four thousand pesos. However, when trying to resist the robbery, the senior citizen was beaten and thrown against the vehicle by the aggressors before being stripped of his belongings.
Security images, which circulated widely on social media, captured the violence of the attack and provoked a wave of rejection among citizens who demanded justice for the aggression against the elderly.
The victim’s lawyer, Samuel López, stated that the sentence sets a precedent against this type of criminal act.
“He always presented himself doing magic, but today justice dismantled his trick and condemned him for his actions,” the jurist expressed after concluding the hearing.
The court found Helena guilty of violating articles 265, 266, and 379 of the Dominican Penal Code, which sanction criminal association and aggravated robbery.
At the end of the process, Jacinto Núñez, victim of the assault, expressed his satisfaction with the sentence and assured that, after months of waiting, “justice was finally done.”
