‘Friend’ charged over Laguna driver’s killing

SAN PEDRO CITY –– The police have filed murder charges against a suspect in the killing of a Laguna female driver last month.

Lt. Col. Gene Licud, police chief of Calamba City, said on Tuesday that the case was filed at the city prosecutor’s office on Monday against the suspect, Ann Sheila Montes Belarmino.

Belarmino was a “girlfriend” of the victim, Jingle “Jange” Lucero, who was found dead with multiple stab wounds in her car, which was abandoned in Barangay Maunong, Calamba City, on June 28.

In a separate statement from the Calabarzon police, also Tuesday, it said the city police arrested Belarmino on July 3, also in Calamba City, after she was identified from a security camera footage as one of the last people seen with Lucero before the victim turned up dead.

“(Belarmino’s) arrest was made as part of the continuing search (for the suspects) for which the case was accepted by the prosecutor,” Licud said in a phone interview.

In earlier interviews, police said a motive in the killing of Lucero, 34, may have resulted from a “love triangle,” since Lucero also had another partner, a resident of Bay, Laguna.

“(But Belarmino) has not talked to us (police) about that yet (since her arrest),” Licud said.

Autopsy results showed Lucero sustained at least 52 stab wounds.

The police were still looking for five other suspects, whom they believe were involved in the killing.

LZB