Weak alibi gets man convicted for homicide

MANILA, Philippines—Finding his alibi and court testimony inconsistent, a Quezon City judge sentenced on Monday a man to a maximum jail term of nearly 15 years for killing his neighbor some six years ago.

Judge Rosa Samson of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 105 found Jefferson Orteso guilty of homicide instead of murder, which he was originally charged with, and sentenced him to serve up to 14 years and eight months in prison.

Samson, in her six-page order, also ordered Orteso to pay the heirs of his victim Lauro de Castro P125,000 in damages.

According to the information against Orteso, he shot to death De Castro on May 19, 2007, inside the victim’s house on Quirino Highway in Barangay (village)  Baesa, a killing that was “done treacherously and with evident premeditation.”

During the trial, the prosecution presented three witnesses, including a neighbor and the victim’s son, who both testified they saw Orteso shooting the victim and fleeing from the scene.

In his defense, Orteso had denied the charge against him and claimed he could not have committed the crime because at the time of the shooting, he was inside his own house 100 meters away from the victim’s home. He later testified that he was working in Laguna at the time of the incident.

Samson ruled that denial and alibi could not prevail over the positive identification by witnesses of the accused. The judge further said that the alibi given by the accused should make it physically impossible for him to be at the scene when the crime happened.

“Apart from inconsistencies noted in Orteso’s testimony, which militates against his credibility, his defense of alibi does not meet the requirements of physical impossibility of time and place,” she said.

In reducing the charge to homicide, Samson noted that treachery and evident premeditation, which are elements of murder, cannot be assumed. The judge said that was no evidence that Orteso had made preparations to kill the victim nor was there proof that the killing had been planned.

“Absent the qualifying circumstances of treachery and evident premeditation, the crime committed by the accused is not murder, but homicide,” Samson ruled.

She ordered him to pay the victim’s heirs P75,000 in civil indemnity and P50,000 in moral damages.