A MAN will spend up to 25 years behind bars after he was found guilty of attacking a group of friends at a Manila disco with a knife, killing one of them and wounding two others seven years ago.

Reynaldo R. Victoria was convicted of homicide and two counts of attempted homicide on Tuesday by Judge Reynaldo A. Alhambra of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 53.

The court sentenced him to a maximum of 17 years for killing Jeffrey L. Salonga and a maximum of four years each for trying to kill Joselito M. Baldisimo and Erard I. Escanilla, who were minors at the time of the incident.

In a decision promulgated Tuesday, the court also ordered Victoria to pay the victim?s heirs P125,877.50 in indemnity, compensatory and moral damages and P30,000 each in moral damages to Baldisimo and Escanilla.

Court records showed that at about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 14, 2003, Salonga, Escanilla and Baldisimo, accompanied by a certain Vany, were leaving the Waray Waray Disco Club at Radial 10, Pier 12, North Harbor, when Victoria ran toward them with a knife and began stabbing them.

Salonga was stabbed in the back and died in the hospital. Baldisimo was also stabbed in the back, while Escanilla was hit in the upper left arm.

Escanilla, Baldisimo and another prosecution witness, Richard Buot, had identified Victoria as their attacker.

For his defense, Victoria said he was sleeping in his house in Masinop, Tondo, when the incident occurred. His lawyer also presented as witnesses his aunt and mother, who both corroborated his testimony.

Another defense witness, Reggie Millares, a worker at the port, said he had seen three persons sniffing rugby (solvent) and then saw two of them run away, leaving behind the third man, who turned out to be Salonga.

But the court said the prosecution successfully established its version of the incident with the credible account given by Buot.

It said Victoria?s alibi and denial ?do not deserve credence.? ?It is settled that alibi cannot prevail over positive identification. Being easy to fabricate and difficult to disprove, alibi cannot prevail over and is worthless in the face of positive identification of the accused,? it added.

The court, however, said the evidence did not show that there was treachery or premeditation in the actions of the accused, and so the crime was deemed a homicide and not murder, the original charge.