Thursday, October 04, 2007 2 get 'perpetua' for mauling death By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
THE Regional Trial Court sentenced two men to reclusion perpetua for mauling to death another man near a gasoline station at Graciana Street in Toril, Davao City in November last year.
RTC Branch 17 Judge Renato A. Fuentes convicted Onofre Ybañez Cajonera and Elgie Capuyan Onde after giving more credence to the evidence presented by the prosecution on the death of Edgar Kido.
Both accused, assisted by their counsels, pleaded not guilty during their arraignment, but their not guilty pleas were not enough to refute the positive identification and testimonies of witnesses.
Court records showed that the victim was attacked and mauled by the accused and four others who remain unidentified at around 11 p.m. of November 7, 2006 near a Shell gasoline station at Graciana Street in Toril, Davao City.
The prosecution presented Khalid Macaraya, a motorcycle driver, who was waiting for passengers when the mauling took place. He identified the two accused in open court. He said he also knew the victim who was his neighbor. The men, he said, continued to kick Kido even after he fell to the ground.
Macaraya said he was the one who asked for help to bring Kido to the hospital as soon as the suspects left. The victim died at the hospital.
The prosecution also presented Mario Rosquita, a barangay tanod of barangay Lizada in Toril, who was having his motorcycle refueled at the gasoline station at the time of the incident.
Rosquita confirmed seeing the incident as Macaraya related it, even about a man asking for help to bring the victim to a hospital as the suspects fled.
He said that the six men returned after around 15 minutes and mauled an old man who owns a videoke house nearby.
That was when he gave chase and was able to block the tricycle the six men rode in. He was able to arrest only two of the six as the four others fled.
He identified the two in open court saying it was Onde who was driving the tricycle and Gajonera who was the one who kept on kicking the victim even as he fell.
The least the two accused could present were branded as alibis as they claimed they were driving out to Macleod in Toril to deliver some passengers when the incident happened and that they were merely arrested and told that they are accused of killing a person.
Aside from the reclusion perpetua verdict, the two were also ordered to pay P50,000 to the heirs of the victim.
