Just want to share this case guyzzzz!
wheeewww kusoga sa verdict uy! imagine 5 months lang ang trials?
What can you say guys
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" Cop gets 40 years in prison for killing Jojo dela Victoria "
The stunned look on his face said it all.
Senior Police Officer 1 Marcial Ocampo shook his head in disbelief as he was led out of the court where the judge declared him guilty of killing Bantay Dagat director Elpidio “Jojo” dela Victoria.
Ocampo, 42, a finance officer of Minglanilla police station, was sentenced on Monday to reclusion perpetua or 30 years to 40 years imprisonment. He will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years of his jail term.
He was also ordered to pay P900,000 in damages to dela Victoria's widow Evelyn and son Vincent.
After a five-month trial, Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr. of the Regional Trial Court Branch 5 was convinced that it was Ocampo who shot dela Victoria outside his home in Ramona Village in Sitio Dauis, Talisay City about 3 p.m. on April 12, a Holy Thursday.
Dela Victoria died past 8 a.m. of Good Friday in the hospital for multiple gunshot wounds in the body.
The judge said he could have handed down the death penalty on Ocampo for using treachery because dela Victoria was shot several times in the back. But the capital punishment was abolished in June with the repeal of Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law.
“When the killing is attended with treachery, it is upgraded into murder. But in the light of the repeal of the heinous crime law, this crime of murder carries the maximum penalty of reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment),” he said.
Before he handed down his verdict, Judge Gako explained that the decision was originally 120 pages long but he was able to reduce it to 20 pages.
But it took him 15 minutes to explain to a jam-packed courtroom his decision that gave weight to the testimonies of four eyewitnesses and cast aside the defense of alibi of the accused.
“Sorry and thank you,” were the judge's last words before he banged his gavel and walked straight to his chamber, locking behind the cries of disbelief and applause from people in the courtroom.
The loudest scream came from Ocampo's pregnant wife, Grace. “Dili ko, dili lagi ko (I won't accept it),” Grace wailed.
Grace had already been crying even while Judge Gako was reading his verdict. A worried Ocampo kept on looking at his wife.
Ocampo's siblings were also weeping, as they vented their anger on the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) operatives whom they claimed released the actual gunman.
The father-and-son defense team – Hector and Vicente Fernandez II – took some time to stand and leave the courtroom. Asked if they would file a motion for reconsideration, Vicente Fernandez replied: “Yes, we will.”
Evelyn dela Victoria was happy with the decision, although she described it as “partial victory” because the police had yet to bring to justice the mastermind in her husband's killing.
“Because he has no grudge against my husband, somebody must have ordered him to do it,” she said.
She, however, said the identification of the “brain” may take some time because of the slow pace in the investigation. “But I am praying,” she said.
Evelyn, 46, said Ocampo's conviction was a “belated birthday gift” for her slain husband who would have turned 47 on September 13.
She said she went out of her office in Metrobank Fuente Osmeña Branch to attend the promulgation and then returned to the office to finish some work.
Her only son Vincent, a nursing student, was not in the promulgation because he had classes.
In convicting Ocampo, Gako said the policeman's only way out in the present case was to present somebody “who looks and moves like him” to refute the positive identification of four witnesses. These include two brothers-in-law of the victim, a taxi driver and a neighbor.
“The court was tempted to discount the testimonies of Joselito and Winston Gerali on the account of their relationship with the victim, but how about the testimonies of Evan Echavez and Roberto Goc-ong?” he asked.
Echavez, a neighbor of the victim, told the court that he joined in the chase of the gunman after he heard people shouting “theft, theft.”
The witness, who knew boxing, said he was about to hit the accused when the latter pointed a gun at him.
Goc-ong was the driver of the taxi boarded by Ocampo to escape from the scene. He later told the court that the accused sat beside him and that he even talked to his passenger.
“He saw clearly the face of the gunman...this is another positive identification that the court cannot afford to reject,” the court said.
Joselito Gerali testified that he was in his store located in front of dela Victoria's house when a man, whom he later identified as Ocampo, came to him in the afternoon of April 12. He asked the person twice what he wanted, but he did not reply and continued to look at his brother-in-law's house.
When dela Victoria arrived at 3:30 p.m. and was at the gate of his house, the man ran towards him.
Joselito said he got suspicious. So went to the gate where he could clearly see dela Victoria's house to look for the man, only to hear five to six successive gunshots.
He ran to the compound where his siblings were residing and told his other brother Winston about it. The two ran after the gunman who was later chased by the neighbors.
Gako found Ocampo's defense of alibi and denial weak.
Ocampo claimed that he was in Cebu City, about 10 to 15 kilometers away from where dela Victoria was gunned down in Talisay City.
“The court would take judicial notice that from Tres de Abril, Cebu City to the scene of the crime, it would take not more than 15 minutes via the SRP (South Reclamation Project) to arrive there,” the judge said.
Ocampo also claimed that he was framed up by the CIDG personnel and was used as a sacrificial lamb to get the cash reward of P1.2 million offered by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
“The court could not give credence to this. The giving of reward is not prevented under the graft law,” the judge said. /with Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan
Marcial Ocampo was sentenced to 40 yrs mprisonmnt, guilty kiling Jojo Delavicto
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