Diego Novella is jailed for 20 years

A BILLIONAIRE Guatemalan playboy was sentenced to 20 years in a hell-hole jail yesterday for the horrific murder and desecration of an American heiress.

Diego Novella, 44, strangled and smashed the skull of Gabriela Alban after reportedly downing a cocktail of drugs in 2015.

Novella – born into one of Guatemala’s richest families – killed his long-term lover Alban, 39, in a crime so ferocious it shocked detectives.

Her blood soaked body was found by traumatised room service staff at a £1000-a-night boutique hotel for the stars at a seaside resort in South Africa.

A court heard how after murdering Alban he spent hours performing vile acts on her body, including defecating on her face and shoving sweets and chocolates down her throat.

He left a note on her body saying “cerote”, which means “piece of s***” in Spanish.

Defence lawyer William Booth told Western Cape High Court in Cape Town Novella was suffering from diminished responsibility due to drugs.

Booth said the cocktail of cannabis, cannabis oil and over-the-counter drug sceletium had caused Novella to have a “psychotic episode”.

He claimed Alban appeared as a “demon” to Novella, similar to the character of Regan in the 1973 horror film in The Exorcist.

Novella admitted killing Alban but denied murder, blaming the mind bending mixture of drugs.

Scientific tests on Alban's semi-naked body showed no trace of any illegal drugs inside her and her father Howdy Kabrins, 70, said she hated drugs.

Novella claimed she encouraged him to take the drugs.

Divorcee Alban had split up with Novella over his drug use when they were students at university, but they reunited after her divorce.

A pathologist told the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town that Alban suffered a prolonged, brutal and painful death.

Judge Victor Saldanha delivered a damning judgement, ruling he had made up the story of “demons and devils” to escape justice.

He said: “In my view you knew exactly what you were doing and there was a clear intent on your part to murder the deceased and I find you guilty”.

He told Novella that his deliberate desecration of the body compelled him to give five years more than the minimum sentence for murder.

He said Novella had shown little remorse but accepted he had behaved himself during his 3 years awaiting trial.

Novella had persuaded his LA-based lover to join him in South Africa in 2015, believing he had found a spiritual centre that could treat her Lyme disease.

But before Alban began treatment she was murdered in her luxury hotel suite on July 29, 2015.

Father Howdy Kabrins, 70, and mother-in-law Linda, 73, attended all 132 days of the trial along with Gabriela’s mother Doris Weitz, 66, and her second husband retired US judge Alexander Williams, 73.

Weitz said: “Diego Novella has given me a life sentence without parole. There will be no recovery from this. I have lost the will to live and am in mourning.

“All I can say is that I hope he is not allowed out of prison while I am still alive.”

The court heard that Weitz suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and sees a psychiatrist weekly.

The family wore purple – Alban's favourite colour – to court for sentencing.

Alban ran her own marketing company in the USA.

Novella contacted her via Facebook and they began dating again after he had promised her he was drug free and they planned to marry and have children.

The prosecution painted a picture of Novella as a wealthy trust-fund kid who did not work and had lived a high life fuelled by drugs, parties and world travel.

Yesterday after sentence he was handcuffed and led down the steps from the dock to face 17 more years in jail.

Kabrins said his goal was to set up a legacy in his daughter’s name that would help abused women and teach men to respect and care for women.

"I made a promise to Gabi after she was murdered that I would walk to the sun and back to get justice for her and both I and her mother have kept that promise to her."

Novella, whose parents are South American concrete magnates, is planning to appeal his conviction.

Judge Saldanha ordered Novella to be deported to Guatemala upon release.