Quest for justice starts in Davantes slay

Samuel Decimo,19, a suspect in the murder of advertising executive Kae Davantes in the custody of NBI Headquarters in Manila. PHOTO BY RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER

More than two weeks after her gruesome death, the Philippine National Police on Tuesday filed criminal complaints against six men for the Sept. 7 killing of advertising manager Kristelle “Kae” Davantes, three of whom had confessed their participation in the crime.

The PNP charged the suspects—Samuel Decimo, Reggie Diel, Lloyd Benedict Enriquez, Kelvin  Evangelista, Jomar Pepito and Baser Minalang—with qualified car theft and robbery with homicide in the Department of Justice in Manila.

The charges are nonbailable, according to Chief Supt. Christopher Laxa, head of the task force specially created for the case.

“There is no element of murder in the case because the (killing) was not preplanned. We also looked at the motive. The cases we filed were nonbailable, anyway,” Laxa told the Inquirer.

Senior Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP public information office chief, said task force members and personnel of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed the complaints in inquest proceedings presided over by prosecution attorney Omar Casimiro.

“Also present during the proceedings was Vicente Davantes (Kae’s uncle) who acted as the complainant on behalf of the Davantes family,” Sindac said.

“This is just the start. It gives us something to review. Before, we faced a blank wall,” Vince said in a phone interview. “We’re glad there is something for us to start with. The respondents were able to (lead police to Kae’s stolen) laptop and cell phone. That shows the link but we still have to substantiate it with evidence.”

“Our family is on a quest for justice. We are not settling for what is presented before us or what the suspects said. We will review the evidence,” he added.

Decimo remained in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) while Diel and Enriquez were being held at the Southern Police District headquarters. The hunt continues for Evangelista, Pepito and Minalang.

The NBI scored a breakthrough Friday last week when two witnesses identified Decimo as one of the men who abducted Davantes as she was about to enter her Las Piñas City residence shortly before 2 a.m. on Sept. 7 after a nightout with friends at Bonifacio Global City.

Arrested in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite province, Decimo said he stabbed Davantes as ordered by his cohorts when they reached Tagaytay City and later helped dump her body in Silang, also in Cavite. The victim was also strangled using the power cable of her laptop before she was stabbed, he said.

Enriquez was later arrested in Muntinlupa City, while Diel surrendered in Las Piñas City.

Decimo claimed they were only planning to take Davantes’ car and valuables, but ended up killing her for fear that she would remember their faces and the plate number of the car they used in the abduction.

Originally posted: 5:22 pm | Tuesday, September 24th, 2013