The disappearance
Karina del Pozo was 20 years old and living in Quito. In February 2013 she attended a social gathering with several acquaintances. She was last seen alive during the early hours of February 20. Her disappearance quickly became a major public case in Ecuador.
Investigators reconstructed the movement of the vehicle used that night, including location data and witness accounts. Del Pozo's body was found days later in a ravine in the Llano Grande / Llano Chico area north-east of Quito.
Investigation and forensic evidence
Ecuador's Prosecutor General reported that forensic evidence became central to the prosecution. The record cited biological traces linked to Del Pozo, technical examination of the vehicle, reconstruction work and evidence recovered from the location where her body was found.
Five people were initially investigated. The final criminal case did not produce convictions against every person questioned or detained. Crime by Region therefore does not treat the broader initial suspect group as perpetrators.
The 2013 trial
After a multi-day trial in September 2013, the Seventh Criminal Guarantees Tribunal of Pichincha found David Piña, Gustavo Salazar and José Sevilla guilty of murder. Contemporary reporting and the Prosecutor General identified Piña as the material author and Salazar and Sevilla as co-authors.
Each man received 25 years of imprisonment, then the maximum term available for the aggravated murder offense charged in the case. The written judgment also ordered each convicted defendant to pay compensation to Del Pozo's family.
Appeals and cassation
The case continued through appellate review. The Pichincha Provincial Court upheld the 25-year sentences in 2014. Ecuador's Prosecutor General later reported that the National Court of Justice, on October 2, 2014, declared cassation appeals filed by Salazar and Sevilla inadmissible.
Piña pursued later review efforts as well, but the conviction remained in force. In 2023, Ecuadorian reporting stated that he received a pre-release benefit after serving roughly ten years. That later penitentiary decision did not erase or reverse the murder conviction.
Legal and social significance
Del Pozo's killing became part of Ecuador's wider national debate about gender-based killings. The Prosecutor General reported that the case helped intensify legislative discussion around creating a specific femicide offense in the country's new criminal code.
The murder itself was prosecuted under the criminal law in force at the time. This page therefore uses the legally adjudicated label murder rather than retroactively rewriting the conviction under a later offense.
Current status
The adjudicated core of the case is clear: three men were convicted, the 25-year sentences were upheld on appeal, and later cassation litigation did not overturn the judgments. The case is therefore not presented as an unresolved homicide.
As with all Crime by Region files, graphic details are omitted when they are not necessary to understand the investigation or the legal outcome.
Related Ecuador case files
For another Ecuadorian case in which later proceedings changed the legal classification, see The Femicide of Sharon / Edith Bermeo. For a more recent adjudicated femicide case, see The Femicide of María Belén Bernal.
Frequently asked questions
Who was convicted?
David Piña, Gustavo Salazar and José Sevilla were convicted of Karina del Pozo's murder.
What sentences did they receive?
Each received a 25-year prison sentence.
Did the convictions survive appeal?
Yes. The Provincial Court upheld the sentences, and the National Court later rejected cassation appeals filed by two of the convicted men.
Is this classified as a femicide conviction?
No. The killing became important in Ecuador's debate about femicide legislation, but the defendants were convicted of murder under the law then in force.