US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton (second from left) arrives at the Olongapo City Hall in this undated file photo. ERWIN AGUILLON/RADYO INQUIRER
OLONGAPO CITY — The judge hearing the murder case against US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton has yet to issue a resolution on the prosecution’s formal offer of evidence last month, prompting the court to postpone the trial today.
Pemberton, an antitank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, is charged with murder at the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 for allegedly killing transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude on Oct. 11 last year.
Laude was found dead in a bathroom of a motel in this city, after her companion, a foreigner whom witnesses identified as Pemberton, left their room on the night of Oct. 11, 2014.
The court registered a “not guilty” plea for Pemberton after he refused to enter a plea during his arraignment in February.
Lawyer Virgie Lacsa-Suarez, one of the counsels for the Laude family, said the prosecution was informed only on Sunday afternoon that the trial had been postponed indefinitely.
Pemberton’s lawyers were supposed to start their presentation of evidence today.
“I doubt if the trial will proceed because the defense’s presentation of evidence cannot start without the judge resolving first the issue on the formal offer of evidence,” Suarez said in a telephone interview with the INQUIRER on Monday.
The court had set the prosecution’s formal offer of evidence in July, after prosecutors presented their last witness in June. Suarez said the court was supposed to issue a resolution before the defense could start their case.
“The actual trial might not happen today. I think the judge will issue a resolution on the formal offer of evidence today,” Suarez added.
Suarez, however, said despite the postponement of the trial, the lawyers for both parties will meet at 1 p.m. today “to clarify all these things.”
The prosecution presented more than 300 objects and documentary evidence, and 28 witnesses, composed of eyewitnesses, policemen, forensic experts and agents from the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).
Lawyer Harry Roque Jr., lead counsel for the Laude family, said the trial would only proceed after a resolution on the formal evidence has been issued by the court.
Suarez said the defense had yet to inform the prosecution of who would be their first witness.
The defense has listed 10 witnesses, among them Pemberton himself, his mother, an American law expert, a military law expert, a psychiatrist, an NCIS agent and a forensic expert.
Defending Pemberton in court are lawyers Rowena Garcia-Flores, Benjamin Tolosa Jr. and Filemon Ray Javier from the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW).
Pemberton, who is held in a facility inside the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ headquarters in Quezon City, was charged with murder in December last year. His trial started on March 23.
The Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States gives the Philippine government only a year to complete the litigation process against any American serviceman accused of a crime here. Murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.