Alleged Wife Killer Behind Bars
Luis Fernando Burgos, accused of killing his wife, Maureen Hidalgo, went before judge José Barleta of the the Juzgado Penal de Alajuela and at 5:00am, was ordered to six months of preventive detention (jail). Burgos faces a maximum of 35 years in prison if convicted.

The judge ordered the public defender to preventive detention following a request by the Fiscalía (prosecutor's office) after formally charging him on Monday with the death of his wife but did not have sufficient proof for the detention.

Friday morning, judicial officials visited Burgos at his home and detained him, after the Fiscalía said it had now sufficient evidence following days of forensic examinations.

Burgos will not be spending his time in the traditional holding cells of San Sebastián. Rather, he will be spending the next six months in the cells of the Fuerza Pública de Hatillo Centro. Burgos arrived at the Delta 11 delegation at 11:30am.

Friday, Jorge Rojas, the director of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), made public the detention of Luis Fernando Burgos. Rojas would not elaborate on the details of the detention, nor did he give details of evidence as a result of the forensic examination that led police to detain the man.

OIJ director Rojas said that the cause of death appears to be strangulation and that they now know where the murder took place and a possible motive, however, would not elaborate on the details..

Speculation is that the murder occurred in the couple's apartment and that the motive was a crime a passion following an argument and that there might be another or others who helped move the body from the scene of the crime and dumping it at the edge of the Rio Grande on the road to Atenas, west of San José, in the province of Alajuela.

Burgos was first taken to the Primer Circuito Judicial de San José where he went through an intensive interview by fiscales (prosecutors) of the Unidad de Apoyo del Ministerio Público.

Burgos rejected all the charges facing him and denied his involvement in the murder, according to his laywer and friend, Jorge Arturo Rojas.

The Fiscalía in San José was asking for a year in preventive detention, the reason for Burgos to request for a hearing in the province of Alajuela, where the body was found.

The defence attorney said last night that they had not yet received the detention order, which Burgos will then have three days to appeal the order to the Tribunal Superior Penal de Alajuela.

The decision to hold Burgos in Hatillo rather than San Sebastián is for his personal security. At least that is the explanation given by police officials.

Burgos has been a court officer for 15 years and on occasion served as judge. If placed in San Sebastián he could be confronted by criminals he placed behind bars in his bench decisions.