POLICE filed yesterday a murder case against Geraldine Gella for killing the girlfriend of the American national who used to be her boyfriend.
Gella, who claimed she strangled Marilyn Zacal with an extension cord when the victim attacked her Wednesday, will answer the murder charge, which is based on the sworn statement of her younger brother Clifford.
He said he saw his sister drag the body of Zacal out of her room and stuffed her inside a suitcase.
“Her own brother saw that she dragged the victim outside her room using an electrical cord that was still tied around the victim’s body,” homicide investigator SPO1 Rolito
Jumao-as said.
Gella claimed Zacal got jealous after learning her boyfriend Mark Mosley has been giving her a bigger monthly allowance.
Gella and taxi driver Jay Blanco, 36, were arrested by a Lapu-Lapu Police team after Clifford reported the killing.
The two had just dumped Zacal’s body in a grassy lot in Talisay City.
Blanco was charged with being an accomplice to the crime even if Jumao-as is convinced that the driver does not have personal knowledge of the killing.
Blanco, he said, transported the dead body of Zacal from Lapu-Lapu City to Talisay City and failed to report the suspect to the police even if he was not under intimidation.
He said they initially wanted Blanco charged for obstruction of justice but their legal office ordered his inclusion as accomplice to the murder.
Zacal went to Gella’s house after she invited her while the two had drinks in a bar.
Clifford, 22, was sleeping in the sala of Gella’s house when he heard a commotion from the room of his sister.
Minutes later, his sister went out the room and asked him to help her stuff the body of Zacal into a suitcase and to hide it, but he refused.
He then saw his sister drag Zacal’s body out of her room with the electrical cord tied around the victim’s body.
Jumao-as said the suspect and the driver refused to issue an extra-judicial confession.
Blanco said he would not have allowed the suspect to board his taxi with the cargo had he known it was a dead body.
He earlier said Gella claimed the bag contained broken plates and unusable kitchen ware.
Gella is claiming self- defense in killing the victim, saying it was the latter that got jealous and attacked her.
She said she received from Mosley P16,000 to P20,000 a month while the victim received only P5,000, an allegation that Jumao-as described as a mere alibi to prove it was the suspect who had the motive in killing her. (AIV)