The Murder of Francisca Sandoval
Community reporter Francisca Sandoval was fatally shot while covering May Day events in Santiago in 2022. In 2024, a Santiago criminal court convicted Marcelo Naranjo of simple homicide and two firearms offenses and imposed prison terms totaling 24 years.
A reporter covering May Day
Francisca Sandoval was a 29-year-old reporter for the community outlet Señal 3 La Victoria. On May 1, 2022, she was covering events connected with International Workers’ Day in Santiago’s Barrio Meiggs when violence broke out in the area.
During the disturbances, Sandoval was struck by a gunshot and was taken to hospital in critical condition. She remained hospitalized until her death on May 12, 2022. Chilean press-freedom coverage described her as the first journalist killed in the course of her work in the country since the return to democracy.
Investigation and arrest
Police investigators recovered ballistic evidence and examined video and witness material from the area. Marcelo Naranjo Naranjo was detained in the days after the shooting and was later prosecuted for Sandoval’s death as well as firearms offenses.
Before trial, Naranjo was an accused person and the allegation that he fired the fatal shot remained a matter for the court to decide. Crime by Region therefore does not apply the later conviction retroactively to the investigative stage.
The 2024 trial
The oral trial began in October 2024 before Santiago’s Fourth Oral Criminal Court. On October 16, the tribunal unanimously found Naranjo guilty of simple homicide, illegal possession or carrying of a firearm, and unjustified shooting in a public place. Contemporary reporting on the judgment states that the court concluded the projectile that caused Sandoval’s fatal injury had been fired by Naranjo.
The trial relied on evidence that included investigative work by Chile’s Policía de Investigaciones, security-camera recordings, forensic material and witness testimony.
Sentence
On October 28, 2024, the court imposed 15 years’ imprisonment for the homicide, four years for the firearms offense and five years for unjustified shooting in a public place. Chilean media reported the combined custodial terms as 24 years.
This case file records the trial conviction and sentence. In the sources reviewed for this update, Crime by Region did not identify a later appellate ruling that would justify describing the 2024 judgment as the final word of every possible stage of review. The case is therefore classified as Solved / Trial conviction, rather than using language that implies an unverified appellate history.
Why the case mattered
Sandoval’s killing drew sustained attention because she was working as a reporter when she was shot. The case became both a homicide prosecution and a prominent press-safety case in Chile, while the criminal court’s task remained narrower: determining the individual criminal responsibility of the accused on the evidence presented at trial.