Wednesday, April 02, 2008 Photo in phone By Oscar C. Pineda Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A CELL PHONE screen saver led to the arrest of the alleged killer of a call center agent last Monday night.
Police filed a robbery with homicide case against Jerome Oporto, 30, yesterday.
Asked what the motive of the killing was, Mandaue City Police Office Director Rodel Calungsud said that Oporto admitted he was drunk when Cheryl Reyuma slapped him in the face, prompting him to stab her in the chest.
Oporto denied raping her, though she was only dressed in panties when her decomposing body was found, the police chief added.
After pursuing all possible leads, Police Station 1 operatives recovered Reyuma’s cellular phone and arrested Oporto. Reyuma and Oporto reportedly knew each other because they were neighbors.
Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna, who went to the police station upon learning of Oporto’s arrest, said the suspect was assisted by a public counsel when he admitted to the crime.
Fortuna’s aide, who asked not to be named and is related to the suspect, said Oporto’s parents formerly owned Reyuma’s house. His parents then sold it to her parents, which explained why the suspect knew the layout of the house well.
Calungsud said that Oporto was reportedly peeping on the victim prior to the killing.
When she caught him, he pretended to knock on her door and asked her if he could borrow P200 from her.
She opened the door and slapped Oporto’s face. So he pushed her inside and stabbed her once in the chest.
However, Calungsod finds it unbelievable that a woman would answer a knock on the door wearing nothing but her panties.
After killing her, Oporto reportedly locked the front door. He allegedly took her cell phone, fled through the back door and jumped over the fence. A witness saw him go out the back.
The police director said that Reyuma’s cell phone screen saver had her picture with her child, and this led to the arrest of the suspect.
Jeffrey Lumapas, a dispatcher, admitted in an ABS-CBN interview that Oporto asked him to sell Reyuma’s cell phone.
A barangay tanod saw Lumapas bringing the cell phone with the screen saver and said the photo was similar to the poster Reyuma’s relatives distributed to help solve the crime, Calungsud said.
The tanod immediately informed the authorities. Lumapas cooperated with the police and led them to Oporto.
Reyuma, 28, was found inside her house in Barangay Guizo last March 22 with a stab wound in the chest.
PNP Medico Legal Officer Benjamin Lara, in an earlier interview, said it was hard to determine if she was raped, as her body was already in an advanced state of decomposition. (OCP)
