Accused serial killer pleads not guilty

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Showing no hint of remorse, the accused killer of three foreigners and six others in this city last month pleaded not guilty yesterday before the Regional Trial Court Branch 58 here.

Mark Dizon, 28, faces five counts of murder, one count of carjacking and three counts of robbery. The charges were read to him by court personnel Carolina Manalang before RTC Judge Philbert Iturralde.

Government prosecutor Allan Pasamonte said he would present 16 witnesses in the cases against Dizon, a computer technician and reflexologist who had befriended his victims.

The carjacking and one theft charge dated back in 2003, for which a warrant of arrest was issued against Dizon in 2005.

Court personnel took about 10 minutes reading all the charges against him, as he answered “not guilty” to each one.

Manalang read aloud the accusations that Dizon had the “intent to kill willfully, treacherously, feloniously and with evident pre-meditation” five of the victims, the last set of a series of three murders attributed to him in July.

Two black-uniformed armed escorts from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) escorted Dizon from the Angeles district jail to the court. While he seemed to avoid media camera, he seemed confident, too, in denying the charges against him.

Iturralde assigned a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) to act as Dizon’s counsel after the suspect’s lawyer failed to show up. Dizon also had no relatives among those in the court room.

He was handcuffed all throughout the arraignment. He wore a yellow T-shirt marked with the logo of the local jail at the back, fashionably torn denims, an original Crocs sandals and an expensive-looking watch.

Dizon was arrested in San Fernando, La Union on July 27. He was later charged with the murder of retired US Air Force MSgt. Albert Mitchell, 70, and his wife Janet and their househelps Isabel Fajardo, Marissa Prado and Yulberto Catli in their home in Hensonville Court Subdivision in Barangay Malabanias on July 22.

City police chief Senior Superintendent Danny Bautista said, however, that evidences are being compiled so that Dizon could also be charged with the murder of South African national Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, and his live-in partner, Abegail Helina, 20, whose decomposing bodies were found inside their house at Oasis Hotel and Villas in Clarkville Compound in Barangay Anunas here on July 12.

He said Dizon is also the suspect in the murders on July 16 of Briton James Bolton Porter, 51, and his live-in partner, Melissa Madarang, 22, in their house at 4-11A Nicolas street in Sta. Maria Subdivision in Barangay Balibago here.

Iturralde junked a proposal, apparently from the prosecution, to bar the media from covering the case in court, saying that “this case is open to the public and media is part of that public.”