Teen jailed for 23 years over murder of seven-year-old in carjacking

A court in the city of La Plata on Monday sentenced an 18-year-old man to 23 years and four months in prison for the murder of a seven-year-old girl during a carjacking in February 2025.

Judges from Juvenile Criminal Court No. 1 of the La Plata Judicial District found him guilty of homicide committed in the course of a robbery.

The defendant was 17 at the time of the attack.

The victim, seven-year-old Kim Gómez, died after being run over and dragged for 15 blocks when attackers stole her mother’s car in the Altos de San Lorenzo neighbourhood, without realising she was in the back.

Prosecutors had requested the same sentence handed down by the court.

Defence lawyers argued for a seven-year term, claiming the incident should be treated as manslaughter.

A second suspect involved in the case was 14 at the time of the crime and is below the age of criminal responsibility under law. He is currently being held in a maximum-security juvenile institution for a period of two years.

The attack took place on February 25, 2025, when the girl and her mother were in their red Fiat Palio at the corner of Avenida 72 and Calle 25 in Altos de San Lorenzo.

During the trial, the victim’s mother, Florencia Barraza, described how the attackers forced her out of the vehicle, threw her to the ground and sped away.

Setting off without initially realising the child was still in the car, witnesses say the delinquents attempted to eject Kim from the vehicle’s window as they attempted to escape.

The child, who was sitting in the back seat wearing a seatbelt, reportedly tried to get out of the car too but became caught and was dragged along the street.

Setting off without initially realising the child was still in the car, witnesses say the delinquents attempted to eject Kim from the vehicle’s window as they attempted to escape.

The suspects later crashed the vehicle into a lamppost, sending it into a ditch. They then fled on foot across a nearby open field before police arrived.

An autopsy later concluded that Kim had suffered “hypovolemic shock as a result of the severe blows” and died from the injuries sustained.

– TIMES/NA