Roberto José Carmona was born in 1963 in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, to a mother named Magdalena Bonet and an absent father. His early childhood was marked by neglect and alleged abuse. Due to financial hardship, his mother placed him in the Villa Elisa home in La Plata, where Carmona later claimed to have suffered beatings and food deprivation from staff and older children. He was later moved to a convent, where he alleged similar mistreatment.

At age seven, Carmona returned to live with his mother, but her frequent absences left him feeling abandoned. By age ten, he was already using drugs such as marijuana and pills, and committed his first robbery by breaking into a police car and stealing a .45 caliber pistol. His teenage years were spent moving between juvenile institutions.

As an adult, Carmona’s criminal activities escalated. He was repeatedly arrested for robbery and spent time in multiple prisons, including Olmos, Sierra Chica, San Nicolás, La Plata, and Junín. In 1982, he was sentenced to ten years for aggravated robbery, deprivation of liberty, and drug use, but was released on parole on 10 January 1986. Only four days later, he committed his first known murder.

On 14 January 1986, in Villa Carlos Paz, Carmona encountered 16-year-old Gabriela Ceppi and her friends, whose car had a flat tire. After offering help, Carmona turned a gun on them, stealing their belongings and forcing Ceppi into his car. He raped her twice, once on a dirt road and again in Toledo, before shooting her in the head and leaving her body by the roadside.

Later that same day, he picked up two hitchhikers, threatening them into assisting with the armed robbery of two fishermen. Police arrested Carmona less than a month later in General Pacheco, shortly after he kidnapped a cab driver and a family during another robbery attempt. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for Ceppi’s murder and other crimes.

In 1988, while at San Martín Prison, Carmona stabbed inmate Martín Castro after Castro refused a sexual demand, later scalding him with boiling water while he slept. Castro survived but was permanently disfigured.

In 1994, Carmona killed inmate Héctor Vicente Bolea, reportedly after a fight in which other prisoners tried to lynch him. He received an additional 16-year sentence.

In 1997, at a maximum-security prison in Resistencia, he murdered inmate Demetrio Pérez Araujo by stabbing him in the chest with a sharpened broomstick. This earned him a second life sentence without parole.

Psychiatric evaluations later diagnosed Carmona as a psychopath, noting his lack of empathy and tendency to kill for pleasure. Despite his history, Carmona maintained relationships from prison and even married during incarceration. In 2014, authorities controversially granted him temporary leave to visit his partner, despite his record of extreme violence.

On 13 December 2022, while on temporary leave at his partner’s home in Córdoba, Carmona escaped during the Argentina–Croatia FIFA World Cup semifinal. At around 4:15 PM, he tricked six prison guards into letting him go to the bathroom, slipped away, and attacked taxi driver Javier Bocalón. He stabbed Bocalón multiple times in the neck, chest, and leg, killing him instantly.

Carmona placed the body in the passenger seat and attempted to flee, but crashed the car within 15 minutes. Over the next two hours, he assaulted a couple to steal their car, abandoned it, and attempted another carjacking at a clinic, injuring a woman’s hands in the process. Police captured him at 6:15 PM after a large-scale manhunt.

On 17 May 2024, Carmona was sentenced to a third life term for Bocalón’s murder. The six guards assigned to watch him were arrested and investigated for potential complicity in his escape.