“I made two mistakes: sending those messages and helping Brenda Uliarte. But I don’t have anything against Cristina, and I would never kill a person,” said Nicolás Carrizo on the stand on Wednesday. He’s facing charges of aggravated attempted homicide against former Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. 

Brenda Uliarte, the former girlfriend of gunman Fernando Sabag Montiel, is facing the same charges as Carrizo. She refused to testify.

On September 1, 2022, Sabag Montiel and Uliarte made their way through throngs of Kirchner’s supporters gathered outside her home in Recoleta. Sabag Montiel pointed a gun at her forehead and pulled the trigger. The gun didn’t go off and he was immediately apprehended. 

Carrizo, Uliarte, and Fernando Sabag Montiel have been dubbed the Cotton Candy Gang because they used to sell cotton candy in parks. 

Uliarte spoke with Carrizo right after the attack. Both gave television interviews defending Sabag Montiel and she denied having participated in the attack. During his testimony, Carrizo claimed that he believed her at the time and that a series of incriminating messages planning the assassination bid were “a joke.”

“We were drinking fernet. I was drunk and I started texting. I swear I never took it seriously. What I said was never real, it was a joke,” he said. In the messages, he claimed ownership of the gun Sabag Montiel used and that they had planned it together.

“I just wanted people to believe what I was saying so I could later meet them and tell them it was all a joke, and see their faces. I joke a lot,” he said, adding that he “would never kill anyone.” While speaking about his family, he became visibly emotional and apologized to Kirchner.

After struggling to answer initial basic questions about herself and her charges, Uliarte refused to testify, saying she did not feel well enough to continue. Judge Sabrina Namer decided that her pre-trial testimony would be used for the trial instead. 

Uliarte’s defense requested a psychiatric examination to determine if she was fit to stand trial, but prosecutors objected that she had already been examined twice. The court will now analyze the request.

Wednesday’s hearing was the second in the trial against the Cotton Candy Gang. In the first, Sabag Montiel called the attempted murder an “act of justice.” The trial, led by Judge Sabrina Namer, will hear hundreds of testimonies and is expected to last between six months and a year.