The killer fiancé of a former skating world champion, who bled to death after he shot her two months before their wedding date, has made an extraordinary video behind bars.
Brutal Andres Gustavo Ricci Garcia is serving more than 45 years behind bars in Colombia after a judges found him guilty of Luz Mery Tristan's murder 20 months ago (Aug 2023).
The court heard how her 59-year-old fiancé Garcia had shot the 60-year-old mum-of-five through a door at her apartment in Cali in a fit of rage during a row.
Picture shows Luz Mery Tristan and Andres Ricci, undated. He was found guilty of the aggravated femicide of Luz Mery Tristan. Note: Private photo taken from local media. (Newsflash/NX)
Medics revealed that a single bullet fired into her back had severed Luz Mery's aorta, causing her to bleed out within minutes.
Now Garcia has outraged Luz Mery's family by recording a disturbing interview at his maximum security prison where he claims the killing was an "accident". The 27-minute clip was recorded by a Colombian cameraman and uploaded to a YouTube channel created specially by Garcia to broadcast the footage.
Chillingly Garcia, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved Nike T-shirt, describes Luz Mery's murder as an "unfortunate accident".
His trial heard how the door Luz Mery was shot through had been peppered with gunshot holes where Garcia had been firing at her repeatedly.
Picture shows Andres Ricci, undated. He was found guilty of the aggravated femicide of Luz Mery Tristan. Note: Photo from Prosecutor's Office. (Newsflash/NX)
When police broke into the apartment Garcia still had the murder weapon in his hand. Prosecutors told how her knuckles and face were bruised and grazed showing her desperate fight for life in her final moments alive.
But Garcia sickeningly claims: "I am the partner of Luz Mery Tristan and I am the one who caused her death in an unfortunate accident. Killing her would never have crossed my mind, but it is a reality, and life made it that way."
Picture shows Andres Ricci, undated. He was found guilty of the aggravated femicide of Luz Mery Tristan. Note: Private photo taken from local media. (Newsflash/NX)
He goes on: "I apologise to Luz Mery, something that I do every day. And I apologise to my parents, Luz Mery's parents, to her children Giancarlo, Mario, Andres Felipe, Valentina and Valeria. One day I'd like to be able to shake hands and look them in the eye. I don't know if they would accept a hug from me."
The footage was recorded in the maximum security La Picalena prison in Tolima on 8th April with the permission of a judge in what appears to be a visitors' hall.
Garcia goes on to pour out a sob story about his own damaged life saying: "At the age of 30 I was an alcoholic and at 29 I'd been introduced to cocaine."
And bizarrely Garcia blames the media for his conviction. He says: "I haven't been destroyed, there's a little bit of me left. They built an image of me as a rich, powerful man who can do anything. That I buy the police and politicians, that I have a life of luxury, liquor and drugs. But I am not the monster they created."
Photo shows Luz Mery Tristan, the victim, in undated picture. The former world champion skater has been found dead in Cali, Colombia. Notes: Private picture (@luzmerytristan/Newsflash)
He goes on: "I know I have to pay, like I have done since day one. I have to answer to society, but not the crime to which I have been convicted. I have to try to pay but you can never pay at all because Luz Mery is never coming back. I hope one day I can look her children in the eye and convince them that Andres had no intention. He did not mean to end their mother's life."
Garcia was convicted of aggravated femicide and jailed for 45 years and seven months by trial judges. His self-serving video was flatly rejected by Luz Mery's daughter Valeria, who said: "Andres Ricci is responsible for us having to celebrate birthdays and Mother's Day in a cemetery."
Luz Mery, aged 60 when she died, was one of her country's most beloved athletes. She achieved fame as the first Colombian skater to lift a world crown in the 5,000m at the 1990 Inline Speed event in her home country.
(Clive Goodman / newsX)