Pablo Ibar to spend the rest of his life in prison

Pablo Ibar will spend the rest of his life in prison. The Florida Court of Appeals rejected the Spaniard's appeal and upheld his life sentence after he was charged with three murders in 1994. Andres Krakenberger, spokesman for the Pablo Ibar Just Judgment Association who, this Thursday, confirmed that Ibar will have to serve his sentence.

Krakenberger described the decision as an "overwhelming blow" since the Spaniard has been in prison for years for a crime he claims he did not commit. Ibar, 50, has spent half his life in prison. He has two children and is the nephew of a well-known former Spanish boxer, José Manuel Ibar Urtain, who passed away in 1992.

Background on the Pablo Ibar case

The crime occurred on June 26, 1994, although the investigation started a day later on June 27 when the bodies of nightclub owner Casimir Sucharski and two dancers, Marie Rogers and Sharon Anderson, were found. Days later, video footage emerged of a man shooting at these people. Many identified this person as Pablo Ibar. For this reason he was imprisoned in 1994. In 1997, the first of his four trials for the triple homicide began.

During the second trial, held in 2000, Ibar was sentenced to death. He spent 16 years on death row while the association fought to prove his innocence. In 2016, as reported in El Mundo, an appeals court overturned the sentence on the grounds that the evidence was "too flimsy" and decided to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment.

On Feb. 28, the court hearing was held in which Ibar's lawyer requested that the life sentence be annulled. This review was rejected by the Florida Court of Appeals, and Ibar will now have to spend the rest of his life in prison.