Man meted 20 years for frustrated murder

A 30-year-old man from barangay Napo, Carcar town, was sentenced to 20 years in jail after the court found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of shooting and wounding a man in Talamban eight years ago.

Although the victim, Lito Lagaac, 35, of Misamis Oriental, died a few years after he was shot, the court only convicted Jose Regen Borbajo of frustrated murder, and not for murder.

Regional Trial Court judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr. ruled that Borbajo could not be convicted of murder because it was not proven that Lagaac's death was caused by the gunshot wound that he sustained.

The information of the case showed that Lagaac was about to buy a cigarette from a store in Talamban when he was shot and wounded by Borbajo, using a .38 cal. revolver.

Borbajo claimed that he shot Lagaac using the latter's gun while he defended himself because it was the victim who attacked him.

The accused even presented a motorcycle-for-hire driver who testified before the court that it was Lagaac who first kicked and tried to shoot Borbajo, who quickly defended himself.

But before he died, Lagaac managed to present a witness who testified that while he was proceeding toward a store to buy something, he was waylaid by the accused who hid in the shadows then shot him.

Gako said the prosecution successfully convinced the court that there was an evidence of premeditation because Lagaac and Borbajo had a quarrel three weeks before the incident.

Aside from imposing a 20-year jail term to Borbajo, the court also ordered him to pay Lagaac's heirs P50,000. - Rene U. Borromeo