Azul Montoro ("Blue")
Age 2618 Oct 2017
Córdoba (Argentina)
Stabbed
TDoR list ref: tgeu/18-Oct-2017/Azul "Blue" Montoro

Azul was stabbed 18 times in the neck, chest and back. Fabian Alejandro Casiva was arrested after her mobile phone was found in his possession.
The case went to trial on 31st July 2019.
The Chamber of Accusation of Criminal Justice of Cordoba endorsed the elevation to trial of the killer of Azul Montoro, a 23 year old trans woman murdered with 18 stab wounds. The crime took place near the Mercado Norte of the Mediterranean capital, at dawn on October 18, 2017.
Fabian Alejandro Casiva, also 23 years old, will be tried for "qualified homicide for mediating gender violence" and "calamitous theft" for the theft of a mobile phone. He is also charged for damage and violation of Law No. 14346 of protection of animals against acts of cruelty, because before fleeing he killed the dog of a friend of Azul who rented the room and was away at the time.
Captured a few hours after the crime, Casiva was declared fit for trial by a psychiatric and psychological expertise. At the request of the complaint and the prosecution, a second evaluation considered him conscious and responsible for his actions. In November 2018, the Control Court approved the elevation to trial requested by the prosecutor Guillermo Gonzalez, but the defense appealed.
Finally, the judges of the Chamber of Accusation Patricia Farías, Maximiliano Davies and Carlos Salazar ordered the elevation to trial. It will be held in the 9th Chamber of Crime, probably during the course of this year. As proposed by the prosecution and backed by the judge of Control and the Chamber, the transvesticide of Blue may become the first case in the criminal history of Cordoba to apply the figure of "femicide" for a transgender victim.
Prosecutor González told Presentes that "the Chamber shared the criterion supported by the second expert opinion that Casiva was responsible for his actions". He added: "These acts in principle have the seriousness of a femicide. I believe that the diverse identity of Azul, recognized as a woman by the Civil Code in her DNI, had to do with the motivation to kill her."
In the resolution of the House, Judge Farías supported this position and exposed the aggravating circumstance for gender violence, shared by her peers: "There was a situation of domination, imposition of will, suffering and harm on the part of the accused. Casiva "and" the event happened in a relationship of inequality and asymmetry and the aggression towards the victim was due to the fact of being a woman ", based on a "machista positioning".
Attorney Tomás Aramayo represents the parents of Azul as a plaintiff. She considers that the trial can mean "a great step in favor of the fight of the trans girls " and break the impunity that their perpetrators usually enjoy. It highlights the role of the expert witness, the psychiatrist Raúl Quiroga and the psychologist Fabiana Boerr, who "managed to prove that Casiva was fully responsible and that he had pretended not to remember what had happened that night".
"Despite the very good instruction that the prosecutor did, if we had not proposed these experts, today Casiva would walk freeling in the street," said Aramayo. In addition, he valued the support provided by the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Province for the clarification of the case, claimed by the immediate mobilization of the friends and workmates of Azul, the groups of sexual diversity and the Association of Women Women of Argentina (Ammar) regional Córdoba. A publication of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Córdoba highlighted the ruling as "great news in the fight against femicides and the recognition of #LGBTIQ rights."
Among those friends mobilized was Lara Godoy, born in San Juan and emigrated to Córdoba in search of work, like Azul she came from San Luis Natal. Their friendship was born of sharing both street and night. Lara was ten years older and was "like her older sister, always trying to take care of her".
"Trans people have the family of blood and the family of life, with which you meet on the street. This has been very hard for his family and for all of us," she told Presentes.
"Azul was beautiful in every way," recalls Lara. She had a strong character and was an excellent person. It's the first time I've lost a loved one, and it's horrible. Every day I ask myself millions of questions about what happened the night they killed her. Now it will be known."
In August 2019 Casiva was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
According to the prosecutor, “Casiva reacted with femicidal violence against the exercise of the rights that Azul had as a woman and as a sex worker. He thought that she was something that was to serve him. She refused and that was what triggered the violence. The relevant thing is that a woman was killed for the mere fact of being one and for exercising rights that she had as a sex worker”.
During all the hearings Azul's relatives were present. While waiting for the sentence, her mother had asked that “Justice be done so that this can never happen again”.
Centro de Apoyo a las Identidades Trans & Cronica, 18.10.2017
https://rosarionuestro.com/el-brutal-crimen-de-una-joven-trans-sera-juzgado-como-femicidio/
https://www.kienyke.com/krimen/crimenes-de-odio-contra-la-comunidad-lgbti-en-colombia-y-el-mundo
http://agenciapresentes.org/2019/05/02/cordoba-crimen-de-trans-azul-montoro-a-juicio-como-femicidio/
https://www.debate.com.mx/mundo/El-cruel-final-de-Azul-en-su-departamento-20171019-0075.html