Man linked to neighbor’s death convicted 7 years later

Nearly seven years after he mauled a neighbor who later died of his injuries, a man was found guilty of homicide by a judge last month.

In an eight-page decision, assisting Judge Genie Gapas-Agbada of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 221 sentenced Rolando Castillo to a jail term of a minimum of six years and a day to a maximum of 14 years, eight months and a day.

Castillo was initially charged with the murder of Edgardo Arguelles but the court downgraded this to the lesser offense of homicide.

According to the court, there were no elements of murder in the incident such as treachery, evident premeditation or abuse of superior strength.

But at the same time, the court ordered Castillo, a resident of Barangay Pasong Tamo in Quezon City, to pay his victim’s heirs more than P43,000 in actual damages and P50,000 in civil indemnity.

“The accused’s denial that he assaulted the victim failed to overwhelm the clear and positive proof of the prosecution,” the judge said in her ruling dated April 25.

Court records showed that on Oct. 16, 2005, the victim’s partner, Nenita Lacambra, heard someone knocking on the door.

When she opened it, she saw the victim sprawled in front of their house while Castillo and two other men took turns beating him.

Lacambra said she tried to shield the victim from Castillo’s blows but she was also attacked and lost consciousness.

She and the victim were later brought to a hospital where the latter died the following day due to major head injuries.

Of the three men who attacked the couple, only Castillo was arrested by barangay officials.

He ended up being charged by Lacambra with serious physical injuries  before the Metropolitan Trial Court as a charge of murder was filed against him before the Quezon City RTC Branch 221.

Castillo pleaded guilty in the case filed by Lacambra although he entered a not guilty plea on the more serious charge of murder.

In his defense, he claimed that he was sleeping in his sister’s house at the time the alleged beating took place.

The court, however, gave weight to Lacambra’s positive identification of the accused as one of the three men who mauled the victim.