The Regional Trial Court has acquitted a theology student and his companion for the 2006 killing of a 30-year-old owner of a store along Cervantes St., this city, in what some believed was a result of a fraternity war.
In an eight-page decision dated Oct. 5, 2011 but which was promulgated only last Wednesday, RTC Branch 41 Judge Gerardo A. Paguio Jr. acquitted Manuel Jarabe Jr. and Diego Beejay Bustalino on reasonable doubt.
Jarabe, a 5th year theology student at Silliman University and Bustalino, a second year student of the Negros Oriental State University, were arrested and charged for murder over the killing of Francis John Perez on Nov. 3, 2006.
Perez was shot from behind by two gunmen as he was eating inside his store named K Star Foodhouse at 6:00 p.m.
Jarabe and Bustalino both claimed they were somewhere else at the time of the shooting.
The Court said that while the accused’s defense of denial is inherently weak, the prosecution must first present proof beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution had two witnesses — Maricris Baldado and Lester Rigor.
Baldado claimed to have seen Jarabe and Bustalino shoot Perez from a distance of about 14 inches, while Rigor gave police the plate number of the getaway motorcycle, which was borrowed by Jarabe and Bustalino at the time of the shooting.
Jarabe and Bustalino were arrested by police at midnight, some six hours later, when they returned their rented motorcycle to the King’s Motorcycle rental shop near O.K. Pension House.
However, the Court dismissed the prosecution’s identification of the suspects based on the plate number as hearsay because Rigor did not testify in court. That left Baldado as the only witness.
Baldado, who executed an affidavit identifying the two suspects as the killers, recanted her statement on Dec. 31, 2006.
In January 2007, she again executed a third affidavit, this time repudiating her affidavit of recantation. On Feb. 29, she executed a fourth affidavit affirming her December 2006 recantation.
The Court also concluded that Baldado was not able to see the actual killing because she was standing in front of another store when she heard the explosions.
The Court also noted that both suspects tested negative for powder burns, and that the trajectory of the seven bullet wounds on Perez would tend to establish that the suspects were not standing behind the sitting victim during the shooting.
Earlier news reports said Perez, a native of Mandaue City, was a member of Tau Gamma fraternity, and was facing a murder charge in Cebu for allegedly shooting a member of the Akrho, a rival fraternity.
Jarabe and Bustanillo were alleged to be members of the Akrho, although this angle about a fraternity war did not surface during the trial.