Bail hearing for Bella heats up; lawyers ‘acting like children’

TEMPERS flared in yesterday’s hearing on an application for bail for the main suspect in the  kidnap-murder case of 6-year- old Ellah Joy Pique.

 
The heated words  prompted Cebu Regional Trial Court judge Ester Veloso to warn defense and prosecution lawyers  to “stop acting like children” or else they would be  inhibited from  court.

 
Earlier on, the judge  had warned both  camps to “stop making snide remarks” against each other during the hearing.

 
Private prosecutor Inocencio dela Cerna asked the court to have defense lawyer Rameses  Villagonzalo placed in a straight jacket for repeatedly  interrupting the flow of questions to  witness Richard Ian Bansuan.

 
Dela Cerna said there was a gentleman’s agreement to allow only one lawyer conduct the examination.

 
In a separate interview, Villagonzalo said  the prosecution was just desperate because their case against accused Bella Ruby Santos was weak.

 
“They have not scored since day one. They are taking a beating from us,” he said.

 
Santos is still detained in the Naga City jail since her arrest last year in Metro Manila.

 
Her lawyers insist the evidence against her is weak and  that she would be  allowed  to post bail.

 
The prosecution team is set to present its eighth witness,  Ligaya Escultos, Bansuan’s companion on the night he  allegedly saw Charles Ian Griffiths, Santos’s boyfriend, in  a Pajero by the road in Barili town.  He said the man, who was with a woman,  dumped a package down a ravine.  Ellah Joy was found dead, wrapped in a blanket, below that  cliff in Feb. 9, 2011.

Griffiths was able to go back to London before a warrant of arrest was issued against him.

 
Ellah Joy was abducted outside her school  in Minglanilla town by a couple riding a Pajero o Feb. 8.

 
The next hearing is set on  September 3.