Two regional trial court (RTC) judges separately handed down yesterday death verdicts to seven men who went on a murderous rampage in Quezon City and Caloocan City last July 28, leaving six people dead.
Executive Judge Bayani Rivera of RTC Branch 129 in Caloocan City found seven of the accused guilty of five counts of murder and meted them five death verdicts each.
They are Audie Dona, Alfredo Baracas, Eduardo Palacpac, Dominador Recepcion, Joemari de los Reyes, Robert Alfonso and Bernardo Ranara.
Ranara, who escaped last Nov. 22 while being brought to the Quezon City RTC to attend hearing of their case, was convicted in absentia. The court ordered his immediate arrest.
An eighth accused, Fire Officer 1 Felipe de la Cruz, was sentenced to a maximum prison term of 17 years for being an accessory to the crimes.
A ninth suspect, Diosdado Recepcion, was reportedly shot dead by prison guards at the Quezon City detention center late last year.
Rivera also ordered the convicts to indemnify the families of their victims a total of P843,000.
Barely five hours after Rivera promulgated his ruling, Quezon City RTC Judge Jose Catral Mendoza sentenced the eight gangmen to death for the slaying of television cameraman Elmer Duque and security guard Nestor Mayagma, also in July 28 last year.
Aside from the death sentence, Mendoza also imposed a prison term of six years to ten years for the crime of robbery in band.
Records of the case showed that the gangmen barged into the Sabungan videoke and restaurant along Samson Road in Caloocan City at about 1 a.m. of July 28 and opened fire on the customers.
They also divested some of the customers and a waitress, as well as the shop's cashier, of undetermined amount of cash and jewelry.
The group then commandeered a passenger jeepney and, at gunpoint, ordered its driver, Ruben Labhata, to take them to Paniqui town in Tarlac.
They gassed up first at a Petron filling station along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City which the gang also robbed of some P8,000 in cash.
Labhata also testified that the gangmen then instructed him to proceed to a 7-11 Store on Tandang Sora and Mindanao Avenue where they shot dead Duque and Mayagma, then robbed the convenience store of P125,000 in cash and some goods.
Arriving in Paniqui, they then took two tricycles in going to Ramos town, also in Tarlac, where they sought refuge in the house of De la Cruz where they were rounded up some 24 hours later by combined elements of the Caloocan and Tarlac police forces and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.
Except for De la Cruz, witnesses identified the eight gangmen as the same people who pulled off the heist at the Sabungan.
At the trial in the Quezon City RTC, the court established that the late Recepcion pulled the trigger on Duque while De la Cruz shot Mayagma.
Mendoza also ordered the convicted men to indemnify Duque's heirs of P3.1 million and Mayagma's family of P225,000 in moral and exemplary damages.
The suspects denied the charges against them, claiming they were in Tarlac when the killings took place.
Rivera tossed out their alibi and upheld the testimonies of the witnesses.
The judge dismissed, however, the robbery in band charges for lack of evidence, saying none of the witnesses was able to point at any of the suspects as the one who took the cash and valuables of the customers, the waitress and the cashier.