The young professional soccer player who caused the deaths of a newly married couple by reckless driving after a night out on the town in June, 2019, has been released from the Puente Grande prison after 17 months behind bars.
Rising Guadalajara soccer star Joao Maleck, 20, walked free after his insurance company paid out three million pesos in damages to the families of the victims.
In November, a judge sentenced Maleck to three years and 15 days in prison after finding him guilty of wrongful death. However, he ruled that the soccer star could be released if damages were paid.
Martha Álvarez-Ugena Pedros, the mother of María Fernanda Peña, one of the two victims, hit out at the judge’s decision in November, calling it “a joke … insulting … disgusting corruption … a tremendous injustice.” She accused the judges of “anomalies,” declaring it “ridiculous” that after killing “two young people with a beautiful future ahead of them, and being declared guilty of aggravated homicide,” Maleck could go free after money changes hands. “We never put a price on the life of [María Fernanda],” she said.
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