Court imposes life sentence for homicide in Palma Soriano

A criminal chamber of the Santiago de Cuba Provincial People's Court sentenced Guillermo Sánchez Gutiérrez to life imprisonment after finding him guilty in the death of a National Revolutionary Police auxiliary. The case concerns an event on July 19, 2025, in Palma Soriano. The sentence became publicly known on October 31, 2026.

The deceased auxiliary headed the PNR subsector in the area and was wearing civilian clothes during the attack. Information about the ruling identifies the victim by police role but does not provide a name, so the identity cannot be specified.

The court applied the aggravating circumstance in Article 80 of Cuba's Penal Code, described as acting from revenge or retaliation. That circumstance was the stated basis for imposing the maximum penalty. Available data do not reproduce the judgment's full reasoning or detail how the aggravating circumstance was established.

The sequence says that after the initial attack, the auxiliary sought protection in a neighbor's home. Sánchez Gutiérrez followed him, broke down the entrance door and inflicted seven additional wounds. Those details describe the episode underlying the conviction without changing the central fact that the court found the defendant guilty of the officer's death.

July 19, 2025, is the homicide date, not the ruling date. The information places public disclosure on October 31, 2026, but does not specify when the court formally issued the sentence. The crime date is exact, while the judgment date is unavailable.