Suspect in slay of UPLB student yields, claims innocence

University of the Philippines Los Baños campus PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – The police on Friday said they have in their custody the suspect in the murder of University of the Philippines Los Baños student Maria Victoria Reyes, who was robbed and killed in Biñan City last Monday.

Benigno Nayle Jr., 19, who according to witnesses was seen in a bloodstained shirt as he rushed out of Reyes’ residence after the murder, surrendered to authorities shortly before noon Friday, according to Laguna police director Senior Supt. Fausto Manzanilla.

He said the suspect’s grandfather, Gonzalo Atienza, a former village chief of Sambat in Tanauan City, Batangas, was the one who convinced the suspect to turn himself in.

“According to Nayle, he was in Tanauan City since November 21. He went to his grandfather but stayed in the forested area [in the village] most of the time that he was in Tanauan,” Manzanilla said.

Manzanilla said Nayle, in his initial account to the police, denied killing Reyes.

“May nagtuturo lang daw sa kanya,” [somebody just gave his name to the police] Manzanilla said in a phone interview while on their way from Batangas to the regional police headquarters in Calamba City, Laguna.

He said Nayle would be charged with robbery with homicide and would be detained later in Biñan City.