A former adult film actor is facing four years behind bars for allegedly killing a photographer with toad venom.
Nacho Vidal and his cousin are both charged with reckless homicide over the 2019 incident.
On 28 July that year, Vidal, now 51, led a ritual using a pipe prepared for smoking bufo toad venom.
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He placed the pipe in José Luis Abad’s mouth, lit it, and guided the 49-year-old through inhaling the “medicine” – despite having no medical qualifications.
Meanwhile, his cousin – one of the organisers – filmed the ritual using Abad’s phone.
After about 30 seconds, Abad staggered, slumped to the floor, began convulsing, and his face and chest turned purple.
Amazingly, neither of the accused stopped the ritual until Vidal realised Abad was no longer breathing.
He didn’t call emergency services, despite knowing the venom’s potentially toxic and dangerous effects.
Vidal tried to resuscitate him with CPR and splashes of water, briefly reviving him, though his breathing was erratic and agitated. Moments later, he stopped breathing again.
The adult star continued attempts to revive him for 12 minutes – but it was too late.
Emergency services were only called around 20 minutes after Abad collapsed, as reported by Need To Know.
When paramedics arrived at Vidal’s home in Enguera, in Spain’s Valencia province, the photographer was already dead.
A post-mortem ruled his cause of death as cardiorespiratory arrest triggered by an adverse reaction to drugs.
It later emerged Abad had taken cocaine in the days before the ritual, putting his heart at serious risk – something prosecutors say Vidal and his cousin knew and ignored.
The Valencia Prosecutor’s Office is seeking four-year prison sentences for both.
However, lawyer Javier Vilarrubí, representing Abad’s siblings, is pushing for seven years behind bars, also accusing them of a public health offence.
He’s additionally calling for a friend of Vidal – who looked after the property – to be jailed for three years for concealment.
Vilarrubí described the ritual created by Vidal as “irrational, reckless and extremely dangerous”.
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