OLONGAPO CITY—Convicted US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton is taking his case to the Court of Appeals (CA).
He made this manifestation in a notice of appeal his lawyers filed on Monday at the Olongapo Regional Trial Court (RTC) that found him guilty of homicide for killing transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude on Oct. 11, 2014.
In the notice of appeal, Pemberton’s lead counsel, Rowena Garcia-Flores, said her client was questioning the homicide conviction rendered by Judge Roline-Ginez Jabalde of Olongapo RTC Branch 74 on Dec. 1 last year.
She said Pemberton would challenge Jabalde’s ruling on “both questions of facts and law” in the appellate court.
Pemberton was also elevating to the CA Jabalde’s March 30 ruling denying his omnibus motion seeking partial reconsideration of the court’s guilty verdict, his bail application and his request for clarification regarding his sentence, Flores said.
Although Jabalde affirmed the court’s original decision to convict Pemberton when she dismissed the omnibus motion, she reduced his jail term from the maximum 12 years to
10 years in her latest ruling.
Laude’s kin and their lawyers have yet to comment on Pemberton’s intent to appeal to the CA.
Lawyer Virgie Lacsa-Suarez, one of the counsels of the Laude family, said she received a copy of the notice only on Wednesday.
The court received Pemberton’s notice of appeal on Tuesday, said RTC Branch 74 court of clerk Gerry Gruspe.
Pemberton’s case has had little effect on the continued arrival of American troops in the Philippines. Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon