Torralba case: Witness testifies seeing two gunmen

There were two men who fired their guns at radio broadcaster Cersi "Choy" Torralba but none of them was John Lloyd Ortiz, testified a defense witness in court yesterday. "I am very sure he (Ortiz) was not one of the two gunmen," Bernard Casugod said in refuting Torralba's identification of Ortiz as the man who shot at him while he was in his car at a parking lot of Angel Radio Station on June 8, last year.

Casugod was one of the witnesses the defense had presented in court since the hearing started. He said he was standing near the window of Vacation Hotel when he heard gunshots from the outside.

When he looked out the window he saw the first man firing several shots at a certain direction. This man was chubby, chinito, tisoy with long hair, right-handed and used a gun, a .45-caliber gun. He was also between 5ft-8in and 5ft-7in tall, and in his early 30s but he could not be Ortiz who was only 21 at the time of the incident, said Casugod.

Casugod said he also saw a second man firing a gun, a .45-cal. pistol, toward the same direction as the first man was and was running toward a parked white Lancer sedan. This man was taller than the other, with short wavy hair, but he was not Ortiz either, he said.

Casugod said that, from his position, he did not actually see the target of the gunmen but he found it was Torralba when he went downstairs later to check on the incident. He said he in the hotel for video-taking activities in preparations of his wedding in the afternoon that day.

He said he had known Ortiz even before the shooting because Ortiz's uncle was one of the principal sponsors of his wedding.

During the cross-examination, prosecution lawyer Adelino Sitoy manifested that Casugod did not include in his affidavit the description of the second gunman. But Casugod explained he chose not to tell defense lawyer Heidi Acuña about it.

Sitoy also said Casugod was vague in his description of the types of gun the men used. In his affidavit, Casugod said, "the two men were carrying what looked like to me .45-cal. guns," but in the direct examination, Casugod categorically said these were .45-cal. pistols, Sitoy said.- Liv G. Campo