By Joe Johnson
An Athens man has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he concealed his girlfriend’s death by disposing of her body in a trash can in March 2023.
When Adriana Casteñeda died at the home of Javier Carbajal-Soto, he wrapped her body in plastic and placed it in a trash can that he discarded in a wooded area next to his house on Maple Forge Drive.
Athens-Clarke County police found the body after Casteñeda was reported missing by her roommate on Kathwood Drive.
Carbajal-Soto, 52, was romantically involved with the 38-year-old victim at a time when he was going through a divorce.
Police said that they conducted the subsequent investigation as if the woman’s death had been a homicide.
However, an autopsy at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s forensic laboratory was unable to determine the cause of death for Casteñeda.
When the case was presented to a grand jury, the panel voted to indict Carbajal-Soto on charges of concealing the death of another person and tampering with evidence.
The indictment alleged that the defendant’s actions “hindered the discovery of whether or not (Casteñeda) was unlawfully killed.”
As part of a negotiated agreement with the district attorney’s office, Carbajal-Soto last week pleaded guilty to concealing Casteñeda’s death in return for dismissal of the evidence tampering charge and a 10-year sentence, whith the first three years to be served in prison and the balance on probation.
He was credited for the time he has served in jail since his arrest on January 13.
Good deal for him.
She is still dead.