Jason Ivler. YUJI VINCENT GONZALES/INQUIRER.net
A Quezon City court has found Jason Ivler guilty of killing the son of a former Palace undersecretary in a road rage incident in Quezon City in 2009.
Judge Luisito Cortez of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84 sentenced Ivler to reclusion perpetua for the murder of Renato Ebarle Jr. in a decision handed down on Tuesday. This means he will serve a prison term of up to 40 years. He was also ordered to pay a fine of P9 million.
“After painstaking review and evaluation of the voluminous records containing the testimonial and documentary evidence proffered by both the Prosecution and the Defense, the Court finds the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Murder,” the Court said in its 48-page decision promulgated Tuesday.
The court gave weight to the testimonies of Senior Police Officer Edgar Tiodin and Archie Castillo who positively identified Ivler as the one who shot Ebarle.
“The Court finds that the foregoing testimonies of witnesses SPO3 Tiodin and Castillo should be given full credence absent any taint of ill-motive on their part to fabricate stories or implicate the accused to a serious crime of murder,” the court said.
“Their detailed narrations of what transpired on the night of November 18, 2009 in the place of the shooting incident show the manner on how the victim Ebarle was killed,” the court added.
Aside from the eyewitnesses accounts, the court also pointed out that the bullets recovered inside Ebarle’s body and in his vehicle and the bullets inside the house where Ivler was arrested came from a Kimber caliber .45 pistol with Serial No. MJ59102 based on Comparative examination conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The said firearm was recovered by the NBI at Ivler’s house.
“There is a principle in forensic evidence that ‘physical evidence do not lie’,” the court said.
“The murder weapon, the Kimber Pistol, having been found in the premises where the accused was arrested would raised a serious doubt as to any possible defense of the accused, if any,” the court said.
Although Ivler could argue that the recovery of such evidence was tainted with irregularity, the court noted that “Jason Ivler who was found alone in the basement and without any other person that will raise doubt of the pistol’s possession.”
The victim, son and namesake of Presidential Chief of Staff Undersecretary Renato Ebarle Sr., was shot in a traffic altercation on Santolan Road on Nov. 18, 2009.
Ivler was arrested in 2010 for the murder charge. He is the son of art patron Marlene Aguilar and nephew of folk singer Freddie Aguilar.
The prosecution team, led by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon, has offered 58 pieces of evidence against Ivler. RC/IDL
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