Prosecutors in Venson Evangelista case appeal judge order ‘deleting’ testimony

EVANGELISTA

Public prosecutors in Quezon City have asked a local court to put back on record a witness’ testimony in the 2011 murder of car dealer Venson Evangelista.

This was after the judge had it stricken off on the ground that the witness’ mysterious death in 2012 deprived defense lawyers an opportunity to conduct “a full and exhaustive cross-examination.”

On Jan. 10, Judge Wilfredo Maynigo of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 215 issued an order to invalidate the Jan. 27, 2011, testimony of Alfred Mendiola, the poseur car buyer who had worked with the suspects to get to Evangelista.

Mendiola was then under the justice department’s witness protection program but had refused to abide by the program’s security restrictions. On May 6, 2012, he was found dead along with two other men in a vacant lot in Dasmariñas, Cavite province.

In June 2011, Mendiola took the stand and pointed to brothers Raymond and Roger Dominguez, Rolando Talban, Joel Jacinto and Jayson Miranda as the perpetrators of the killing.

At the time of the testimony, however, only the Dominguez brothers and Miranda were in police custody. Jacinto and Talban were arrested separately long after Mendiola was killed.

In an order dated Jan. 10, Maynigo said that if the testimony would be still admitted, the accused would be deprived of due process, their lawyers being unable to fully cross-examine the witness.

The order resolved whether Mendiola’s testimony should be a part of the prosecution’s evidence. Maynigo said that while the defense lawyers were able to cross-examine the state witness during the hearings for his discharge as an accused, “it was limited to that purpose.”

“It may not be argued that the defense had been accorded the opportunity to conduct a full and exhaustive cross-examination with respect to the guilt or innocence of the accused and on the elements of the offense charged,” the judge said.

In a motion dated Feb. 5, assistant city prosecutors Irene Resurreccion, Jaime Villanueva and Ramoncito Ocampo asked Maynigo to reconsider, saying: “Certainly, it is a harsh measure to strike out all that has been obtained on the direct examination of Mr. Mendiola as his untimely and violent death was under no circumstance attributable either to his fault or the prosecution’s.”