Woman loses appeal against teen's murder

Woman loses appeal against teen's murder

Apr 18 2003

By Court Reporter

South London Press

THE conviction of a woman who hired assassins to murder a teenage boy was upheld by Appeal Court judges this week.

Luisa Bolivar, 40, was jailed for life at the Old Bailey in January 2000 after being found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Jorge Castillo.

The court heard Bolivar, of High Street, Victoria, hired two hitmen to murder the youth because he had stolen jewellery from her boyfriend, Juan Carlos 'Scarface' Hernandez, in a south London bar. The assassins garrotted the victim in a moving car before dumping his body in a rubbish bin in St Agnes Place, Kennington.

Bolivar's lawyers this week argued unsuccessfully that her counsel at the trial - top barrister Colin Campbell - had represented her so inadequately that her conviction was unsafe and ought to be overturned.

The Appeal Court heard how, during Bolivar's trial, Mr Campbell was also defending another case at Stafford Crown Court in which a man faced a conspiracy to murder charge. Mr Campbell had commuted between the two courts.

The Appeal Court was told Mr Campbell was also facing serious professional and personal difficulties at the time, but Lord Justice Rose dismissed Bolivar's appeal saying "there was no reason to regard the conviction as unsafe".

Mr Malcolm Swift QC, who represented Bolivar in the Appeal Court, argued that in his final summing-up of the case to the Old Bailey, Mr Campbell had not properly addressed evidence relating to telephone calls made by Bolivar.

However, Lord Justice Rose said: "How much of that material ought sensibly to be used was a matter for Mr Campbell's judgement."

He said Mr Campbell's personal problems at the time of the trial had in no way resulted in any inadequacy in the way he presented Bolivar's defence.

Dismissing Bolivar's appeal, he concluded: "It's to be noted that neither of the experienced trial judges can have considered that any unfairness was arising to either of the defendants.

"There is no reason to regard Bolivar's conviction as unsafe and her appeal is dismissed."

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