He killed nurse days after ‘surrendering’ as drug user

CONFESSION Jeffrey Guarin turns himself in to the Quezon City police on Wednesday, admitting the gruesome killing of a nurse whom he also tried to rob inside a boarding house on Aug. 20. He later tested positive for drug use. LYN RILLON

Saying he was bothered by his conscience, a man who last month submitted himself to the government’s antidrug campaign presented himself again to the police, this time to admit that he stabbed a nurse dead in her room in Quezon City last week.

Jeffrey Guarin, 22, went to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) headquarters on Wednesday, a day after he surrendered to barangay officials for killing September Ann Paz, before dawn on Aug. 20.

Paz, a 24-year-old nurse at St. Luke’s Medical Center and a native of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, was found inside her room with 19 stab wounds hours after her neighbors heard her moaning in pain.

Guarin said he was just drunk when he attacked the victim, although he would later test positive for drug use. He claimed that he only intended to rob Paz because he needed money to buy more liquor.

He lived beside the boarding house where the victim stayed on Doña Juana Rodriguez Street, Barangay Kristong Hari.

Guarin said he managed to get into the victim’s room while she was asleep and was going through her bags when Paz woke up and screamed.

Escaping empty-handed

He said he panicked, “grabbed the knife inside her room and stabbed her.” In his haste to escape, he left without getting any of the victim’s valuables.

Asked why he stabbed Paz 19 times, the suspect said he was not in his right mind because he was drunk. QCPD chief Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar said, however, that Guarin was also “high” based on his drug test.

Eleazar said Guarin surrendered to authorities on July 15 under “Oplan Tokhang,” the Philippine National Police campaign that has forced thousands of drug users nationwide to come out and be documented.

Yielding first to councilor

Guarin denied that he was still into drugs. “I stopped last April and surrendered to the police because I do not want to be a victim [of extrajudicial killings],” he added.

Barangay Kristong Hari councilor Rogelio Hablo, to whom the suspect surrendered, said he had known Guarin from the time he was a child. “He is a good person. I think it was just the influence of drugs and alcohol that pushed him to do that,” Hablo said.

According to the councilor, a day after the nurse’s death, they asked all drug surrenderers in the area to present themselves at the barangay hall to determine if any of them had wounds. This was after the police reported that there was blood from the suspect found at the crime scene.

“Guarin appeared that day but he was wearing a jacket and he immediately left after listing down his name,” Hablo said.

The official then sensed that something was amiss with the suspect.

When Guarin sent surrender  feelers, the councilor encouraged him to own up to the crime and give himself up.

A raid on the suspect’s house later led to the discovery of two pairs of black shorts with blood but not the kitchen knife Guarin said he used to kill Paz.

The suspect said he threw the weapon into a creek immediately after the crime.

Guarin would be charged with robbery with homicide, Eleazar said.