Gerardo Rios Mairena, the Costa Rican man who was arrested early February 2017, as the only suspect in the massacre of five university students January 19, 2017 in the city of Liberia, Guanacaste, was found guilty and sentenced to 216 years of jail.

The sentence was dictated by the Liberia Tribunal Court by judges Guillermo Arce, Andrea Rodriguez and Kathy Abarca; the decision came after several days of trial in which evidence was presented including the testimony of the only survivor.

34-year-old Rios, who pleaded not-guilty, was charged with five counts of homicide, an attempted murder and sexual abuse. His defense attorney in the final statement requested his acquittal arguing that the crime scene had been compromised.

Rios had done jail time before, when he was sentenced to 8 years for a drug related issue back in 2012, at that time he received an early release from the Liberia prison for his good behavior.

Rios was a neighbor of the victims, he lived with his mother and stepfather and did occasional construction work for a living.

The crime took place between the night of January 18 and early January 19 when apparently Rios entered the apartment where the victims lived, they were sleeping at the time, and Rios proceeded to attack them and threatened and forced one of the students (Ariel) to help him tie the rest and proceeded to slash their necks with a knife, he sexually abused one of the woman before killing her .

The deceased students, were Joseph Briones Solis, 22 a student of business administration; and Ariel Antonio Vargas Cieza (a student of Business Management), Stephanie Hernandez Garcia (Business administration and education student), Dayana Vanessa Martínez Romero (Business Administration Student) and Ingrid Massiel Méndez Serrano (psychology student), all of whom were 24.

In addition to the five murdered students, a 14-year-old girl, who was the cousin of Stephanie Hernandez, was found on the scene with a deep cut in her neck, she was the only survivor.

Even though Rios Mairena received 216 years in his sentence, this will be reduced to 50 years which is the maximum sentence according to Costa Rican law.