OLONGAPO CITY — After seven years, two men, one of them a Filipino-American, were sentenced to reclusion perpetua for killing a 23-year-old store supervisor in Zambales province.
In a decision dated Nov. 2 and promulgated on Friday, Nov.18, Presiding Judge Consuelo Amog-Bocar of the Regional Trial Court Branch 71 in Iba, Zambales, found Fil-Am Jonathan Dewayne Viane and Niño Dela Cruz guilty of murdering Karie Ces “Aika” Mojica.
Viane and Dela Cruz were sentenced to reclusion perpetua (20 to 40 years imprisonment) without eligibility for parole.
Amog-Bocar also ordered each convict to pay the heirs of the victim P100,000 as civil indemnity, P100,000 as moral damages, P100,000 as exemplary damages, and P50,000 as temperate damages.
Mojica, who lived in Barangay Sta. Rita, was reported missing on July 24, 2015. The next day, she was found dead in the Sto. Tomas River in San Felipe, Zambales.
The police described the body as “partly burnt’ and her hands tied with a black plastic strap. Recovered from the area were three empty shells from a 9-mm pistol.
A witness told the police that Mojica met Viane at a gasoline station in this city before she was reported missing.
On July 26, 2015, Viane flew back to the United States shortly after the police launched a manhunt for him and another suspect.
On Sept. 3, 2015, US marshals arrested him in Iowa and extradited him to the Philippines on May 1, 2016.
Viane was turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation, but the court ordered him detained at the Zambales Provincial Jail.
On May 15, 2016, Vianne was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to killing Mojica. INQ
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