Sunday, October 12, 2008 3 get 30 years for killing cop By Jujemay G. Awit Sun.Star Staff Reporter
NINE months after they made headlines for killing a policeman and wounding another, three men will be spending the next 30 years behind bars.
Lauro Lumapas Jr., Jonathan Samson and Leo dela Victoria were sentenced to reclusion perpetua or at least three decades in jail for shooting to death SPO1 Pedro Sucion and wounding PO2 Darius Conejos, both of the Mandaue City Police Station.
Mandaue City Regional Trial Court Branch 55 Judge Ulric Cañete found the three men guilty of robbery with homicide and frustrated homicide.
The two policemen were shot after taxi driver Arnel Quibot was robbed of his P2,100 in earnings at dawn last Jan. 6.
“The evidence positively shows that the shooting of Sucion and Conejos was the result of a single impulse, which was the intention of all the accused to escape from the scene of the robbery after they robbed and divested taxi driver Quibot of his earnings,” read Cañete’s four-page decision dated Sept. 30.
Changed their pleas
Lumapas, Samson and dela Victoria pleaded “not guilty” during their Feb. 8 arraignment, but later changed their pleas to “guilty.”
Quibot testified that he picked up the accused on Colon St. They were headed for the Mandaue City public market.
Quibot said they told him to pass through the reclamation area in Mandaue City. Near the Cebu International Convention Center though, Lumapas, who was seated in the front, and dela Victoria, pointed their handguns at him.
Quibot gave up his earnings and his wallet. They returned his wallet, without his license.
The three men then ordered him to get out of the vehicle.
Quibot said that as he was fleeing from the scene, he heard gunshots. Fearing for his life, he hid. When he thought it was safe to come out, it was then he realized that two policemen have been shot.
Payback
Tricycle driver Belmar Arnado, the second prosecution witness, testified that Lumapas, Samson and dela Victoria hired him to drive them to the public market.
SPO1 Sucion and PO2 Conejos then arrived and ordered Arnado to stop his tricycle.
According to investigation, Sucion and Conejos were watching the area because of reports of drag races being held there. They heard gunshots in the area, which made them suspicious of the three in the tricycle.
Arnado said that when Sucion approached him, Lumapas immediately alighted from the tricycle and shot Sucion, then Conejos.
Judge Cañete ordered the suspects to pay Sucion’s family P350,000 in actual and moral damages and Conejos’ family P200,000. They also have to pay back taxi driver Quibot’s earnings that night, amounting to P2,100.
