Teehankee, convicted killer, freed

Controversial inmate Claudio Teehankee Jr., the late former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr.’s son convicted for the murder of two youngsters and wounding of another in 1991, was finally released from prison last Thursday.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Teehankee was freed Oct. 2 after President Arroyo released the order commuting his sentence on Sept. 9.

New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) Superintendent Ramon Reyes, however, said Teehankee, 69, was escorted out of his cell at the Maximum Security Detention around 12 midnight Saturday.

Reyes said Teehankee was imprisoned for 21 years and three months and had completed his sentence.

Reyes said the order that originated from Malacañang was transmitted to the Department of Justice and afterwards forwarded to the NBP as the agency responsible for implementing the release order.

“Included in the computation was his ‘good conduct time allowance’ that made him qualified for release,” he said.

Teehankee is the older brother of former government corporate counsel and justice undersecretary Manuel A.J. Tehankee.

He was convicted by the Supreme Court in 1995 for the murder of Roland John Chapman and Maureen Hultman and sentenced to one count of reclusion perpetua and two counts of reclusion temporal.

Court records show that Chapman, Hultman, and another friend, Jussi Leino, were coming home from a party in the early morning of July 1991. Leino was walking Hultman home along Mahogany Street in Dasmariñas Village, Makati City when Teehankee came from behind them in his car.

Court records had it that the convict stopped the two and demanded that they show some identification.

The ensuing argument resulted in Teehankee shooting Leino, Chapman and Hultman.

Chapman and Hultman died in the shooting but Leino survived and later testified against the gunman. – With Mike Frialde