The Killing of Nagore Laffage

On July 7, 2008, during Pamplona's San Fermín festivities, Nagore Laffage met José Diego Yllanes. Nagore was a 20-year-old nursing student; Yllanes, then 27, was a medical resident. They went to his apartment, where he assaulted and killed her. He then attempted to conceal what had happened and moved her body away from the apartment.

Nagore Laffage

Nagore was from Irún and was studying nursing. Reliable Spanish coverage of the case has repeatedly centered her family's efforts to keep her memory separate from the technical legal debate about how her death was classified. Her mother, Asun Casasola, later became a prominent voice in public discussion of violence against women.

The case received particular attention because it occurred during one of Spain's best-known festivals and because the jury's eventual distinction between homicidio and asesinato became controversial. Those terms have specific consequences in Spanish criminal law and should not be blurred in an English-language case file.

The killing and investigation

The facts accepted by the courts established that Nagore and Yllanes encountered one another on July 7 and went to his home in Pamplona. A confrontation followed. The court record found that Yllanes beat and strangled her, then took steps to conceal the crime and transported her remains to the Sorogain area of Navarra.

Yllanes was identified and prosecuted. The criminal proceedings focused not on whether he had caused Nagore's death — that responsibility was established — but on the precise legal classification and the aggravating and mitigating circumstances that would determine sentence.

Jury verdict and sentence

A jury trial was held in Pamplona in November 2009. The jury found Yllanes criminally responsible for homicide, not the more serious offense of asesinato sought by Nagore's family and several public-interest accusers. The Provincial Court sentenced him to 12 years and 6 months in prison, applying abuse of superiority as an aggravating circumstance and recognizing limited mitigating factors.

Multiple parties appealed. Nagore's family and the public-interest accusers argued that the proven circumstances supported a murder classification, while the defense sought a reduction.

Appeals and the Supreme Court

In March 2010, the High Court of Justice of Navarra upheld the homicide conviction and 12-year-and-six-month sentence. The dispute then reached Spain's Supreme Court.

On December 27, 2010, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals and confirmed the conviction and sentence. The court concluded that the facts as found by the jury did not permit it to add the element of alevosía required by the argument for classifying the killing as asesinato. That legal conclusion was painful and controversial for Nagore's family, but it is the final criminal classification and is reported here accurately.

Later legal record

By 2024, after serving the custodial sentence, Yllanes sought removal of links to reporting about the case under Spain's data-protection and right-to-be-forgotten framework. Spain's National Court rejected that request, finding that the continuing public interest in information about the case outweighed his request to suppress the search results at issue. That later proceeding did not reopen or alter the homicide conviction.

Timeline

1. July 7, 2008
   Nagore Laffage is killed

   Nagore meets José Diego Yllanes during San Fermín and is killed after they go to his Pamplona apartment.

2. November 2009
   Jury finds homicide

   A jury finds Yllanes responsible for homicide rather than asesinato. The court imposes 12 years and 6 months in prison.

3. March 16, 2010
   Navarra appeals court upholds judgment

   The High Court of Justice of Navarra confirms the conviction and sentence.

4. December 27, 2010
   Supreme Court finalizes conviction

   Spain's Supreme Court rejects the outstanding appeals and confirms the homicide classification and prison term.

5. March 2024
   National Court rejects right-to-be-forgotten claim

   A later administrative-law decision preserves public access to reporting about the conviction; it does not alter the criminal judgment.

Current status

José Diego Yllanes's conviction for homicide is final. Spain's Supreme Court confirmed the 12-year-and-six-month sentence in 2010, and later litigation concerning online search results did not disturb that judgment. This case is therefore classified as Solved / Final Supreme Court ruling.