Man with scarf gets 20 years in jail for murder

Saturday, December 3, 2011

WHO wears a purong (headscarf) this day and age?

According to a recent court decision, a man from Carcar wrapped a band of cloth around his head in the manner of the traditional Bisaya headdress, and blasted away at somebody with a shotgun outside a mahjong parlor four years ago.

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If the purong Brix Satinitigan wore was a means of concealing his identity, or a way to intimidate onlookers into scampering away as he fired the three shots that killed Vicente Lauron, it didn’t work.

Lauron’s sister was able to identify the assailant for Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Gilbert Moises who, last Friday, found Satinitigan guilty of murder and sentenced him to 20 years and one day to 40 years of reclusion perpetua.

“Although the accused was wearing a head covering, it did not conceal his face from Sonia Ocaña. She could easily identify the accused since his face was familiar to her,” Moises’s ruling read.

During the promulgation, Moises also directed Satinitigan to pay the heirs of the deceased P134,000 in indemnification for the July 6, 2008 crime in Perrelos, Carcar City, Cebu.

Punch

The accused did not take the ruling lightly and threw a punch in the direction of the private complainant, Alejandro Lauron, father of the deceased. He was immediately restrained and returned to the Cebu City Jail to await his transfer to a penal colony.

Satinitigan pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned for the case and was among the three witnesses presented by the defense.

At the witness stand, he claimed that he was supposedly asked by a friend for help in killing Lauron, with whose wife this friend was supposedly having an affair.

Satinitigan said he was tasked to drive the motorcycle to be used in the hit.

However, he stressed, he declined to heed the request, telling this friend that he wanted to finish his studies.

Later, he said, this friend came to him and simply told him that he had killed Lauron.

Witnesses

But the prosecution, prior to resting, called their own witnesses to the stand, one of whom was Ocaña, Lauron’s sister.

Ocaña said she was on her way to the mahjong parlor to watch the game of her brother.

However, as she was en route, two persons on board a motorcycle arrived.

One got down, approached Lauron and fired three times. The person then went back aboard the waiting motorcycle and sped away.

Ocaña alleged the perpetrator to be Satinitigan, adding that the latter is familiar to her.

“I ran away right after I saw Brix aimed the shotgun at my brother. I heard three gunshots and the motorcycle hurriedly left,” she said.

Moises found favor with Ocaña’s account, saying it was straightforward.

“The positive identification by Sonia Ocaña that it was Brix Satinitigan who shot to death her brother Vicente Lauron is uncontested,” he ruled.