Ana Julia Quezada: “Gabriel's death was an accident”

“I got scared, and fear blocks you and makes you act this way,” Ana Julia Quezada (pictured) said, apparently referring to her having attempted to hide the child's body before he was found in the boot of her car after more than two weeks of searching.

Quezada wrote to the Programa de Ana Rosa talk show on Spain's fifth channel, Telecinco, from El Acebuche prison in Almería where she has been remanded in custody without bail.

She says she is 'not doing well at all' and has apologised to 'all Gabriel's family' and to 'everyone else' she may have 'harmed'.

Quezada, 43, says she is not able to give too much detail since her case remains sub judice, but that she has been 'badly affected' by the 'lies' told about her.

“It was an accident, and I'll always say this because it's the truth,” she stated.

“I was not strong enough to tell my partner, or anyone, what had happened and, as time went on, I gradually found myself digging a bigger and bigger hole for myself.

“I know I have no excuse for the accident; I've robbed the person I love most in the world of the greatest thing anyone can have – a child.

“Ángel, Patricia [to Gabriel's parents], to everyone, I'm sorry. I have a daughter of my own and have caused her great harm; I hope she can forgive me one day.”

Quezada's daughter, who lives with her father in Burgos, was reportedly hospitalised with a panic attack after learning from the media that her mother had been arrested in connection with Gabriel's death.

But Quezada says she 'still needs to be treated like a human being'.

“I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life here, but that's that last thing on my mind. I have a lot to tell, and I'll explain it all as soon as I'm able.

“What has been said matches my statement, but what I don't think is normal is for a black plastic doll to be put in a town square and set fire to as though it was me.”

Recently, a group of residents in the town of Judas de Coripe (Sevilla province) did precisely that, shouting, “now it's your turn to get killed, and we hope you get killed in prison.”

Gabriel's parents have condemned the burning of the effigy, and the mayor of Judas de Coripe apologised to them on behalf of his residents.

“I'm no more of a monster than these people, and I did what I did by accident; they did it deliberately, so they're more monsters than I am. Just writing this letter is making my hands shake, so I'm sorry, but when white people commit crimes, I've never seen anything as barbaric as this happen. This is called racism and xenophobia.

“I'm black, I committed a crime unintentionally, and all I ask is that I'm judged and treated as I should be treated in my situation.”

Quezada said being in the police cell after her arrest was 'hell' and that she had been treated 'very badly' both there and 'in other places', meaning that when she was finally placed in El Acebuche prison, it was 'like moving into heaven'.

Ángel Cruz's now-ex girlfriend, the only suspect in Gabriel's death, has also slammed a TV channel in Spain whose reporters went in search of her family of origin in the Dominican Republic.

“My poor mother has heart problems – that's not right! And I'm on anti-depressants and pills to help me eat and sleep. They say there's no racism in Spain? I'm starting to doubt that now.

“But at least here in prison I'm okay and they treat me as they should, because they're professionals.”

The anti-xenophobia charity SOS Racism has already issued warnings about members of the public linking Quezada's ethnic origin with her crime, and highlighted comments on social media about 'letting immigrants in' and calling for Quezada to be deported.

She has lived in Spain for 24 years and took Spanish citizenship well over a decade ago, meaning she is considered a Spaniard by law and would not be deported to her country of birth.

Gabriel Cruz disappeared just after lunch on February 27 when he left his grandmother's house in a rural hamlet near Níjar to play at his cousins' house 100 metres away.

Quezada was the only other person at the grandmother's home at the time, and left minutes after the child did so.

He never reached his cousins' home and the post-mortem showed he had suffered a blow to the head and that the cause of death was suffocation, within a maximum of two hours after lunch.