Malaga serial killer suffers attack in prison and requires isolation from other inmates

Crime

Dinamita Montilla has a criminal record including four murders in the 1980s, one murder in 2022, for which he is currently in trial, and is under investigation for another murder in 2023

María José Díaz Alcalá

José Jurado Montilla, also known as Dinamita Montilla, is a notorious Malaga convicted murderer who is currently in pre-trial detention for the murder of a 21-year-old man, David, in Los Montes de Málaga in 2022.

Last weekend, the prison authorities in the town of Archidona had to move Montilla to an isolation unit after other inmates allegedly assaulted him.

Hours before the trial for David's murder began, some inmates allegedly threw the defendant down the stairs as they were coming down from the cells and hit him in the face.

On Monday, the same day that Montilla Jurado went to the courts in Malaga to begin the trial, the prison workers applied a measure concerning inmates who need protection and isolation.

The prosecution is seeking a 26-year prison sentence for Dinamita Montilla, arguing that he had acted "with the aim of obtaining illicit gain" and taken advantage of the young man's "helplessness" and the fact that he was alone.

According to the accusation, Montilla "unexpectedly shot" the young man in the neck with the clear intention of killing him.

The prosecution classifies the event as a crime of murder in conjunction with robbery with violence (25 years in prison) and illegal possession of firearms (one year). Regarding civil liability, it is requesting compensation totalling 99,800 euros for each of David's parents and 28,500 euros for the victim's sister, in addition to a restraining order for a period of ten years after release from prison.

The arrest of José Jurado Montilla, 63, took place in Badajoz in May 2024 after an investigation lasting almost two years. He is a convicted serial killer from Malaga who served 28 years in prison for four murders committed between 1985 and 1987.

Despite a 120-year prison sentence for the four homicides, Montilla claimed to have only been involved in one of the crimes and was released in December 2013.

Montilla also remains under investigation in a separate case linked to the disappearance and death of a woman in Gandía (Valencia) in 2023. Before his provisional imprisonment for the Los Montes de Málaga case, Montilla was last seen with the victim, Ester Estepa.