Court drops homicide raps vs. man

A man was cleared of murder charges even as his fellow accused in the murder charge, a self-confessed neighborhood toughie, was already convicted for a lesser offense.

Rey Gucor was accused along with Manuel "Dodong" Munos, in the murder of Joevangie Baculi, who was shot dead on August 21, 2002.

Munos, who pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of homicide, was convicted on August 22, 2004 and sentenced between eight years and one day to fourteen years and seven months in prison.

He admitted he had been planning to kill Baculi because the latter allegedly stabbed his cousin dead. Munos also testified that he was alone when he committed the crime.

Gucor said on that particular day he was at a party drinking beer with Munos and other friends. Past 10 p.m. he slept while Munos and the others left.

It was only in the next day when he learned that Munos allegedly shot Baculi dead in Gen. Gines Street, barangay Sawang-Calero, Cebu City, and that the former was already in hiding.

Gucor said he was surprised when on September 26, 2002 he received a subpoena bearing his name as one of the suspects of that incident. He admitted being a member of a gang called "Yoms" along with Munos, but he said he became inactive since he got married.

Another prosecution witness Ramil Bendol identified Munos as the assailant. He alleged he saw Munos and Gucor in the crime scene and that it was Munos who shot Baculi, and Gucor took the gun from Munos and fired it in the air.

In his five-page decision, Regional Trial Court Branch 24 judge Olegario Sarmiento Jr. believed that it was only Munos who shot the victim, based on Munos' testimony also corroborated by Bendol's. Even if Bendol said he saw Gucor get the gun from Munos and fire it there was still no evidence to support the allegation that Gucor conspired with Munos in the crime. - Liv G. Campo