Torralba Case: Prosecution puts up final witness

The prosecution yesterday presented in court its last witness to help establish its claim it was John Lloyd Ortiz who shot and wounded broadcaster Cirse "Choy" Torralba on June 8, last year.

Torralba's lawyer, Adelino Sitoy, put on the witness stand Sr./Insp. Melandro Palapo, a bullet trajectory expert of the PNP Crime Laboratory, to state the gunman's position while shooting the broadcaster.

Palapo said the gunman could have stood on the right side of the front hood of the car and said the trajectory of the bullet was a bit downward from the shooter. Torralba, who was sitting on the right front seat, was hit on his left shoulder and arm.

Regional Trial Court Judge Eric Menchavez was supposed to conduct an inspection of the scene of the crime along Juana Osmeña Street but the lack of time prompted him to move it to another date later.

Sitoy then informed the judge that he would not present additional evidences anymore. Menchavez, in turn, directed Sitoy to submit a formal offer of evidence, on or before July 20, to allow the defense time to study it submit its comments.

The defense panel, composed of lawyers Frank Malilong and Rolando Quimbo, are expected to present their first witness on August 3, the scheduled date of resumption of the marathon trial of the frustrated murder case against Ortiz.

This early, Torralba was confident he could pin down Ortiz to the crime, alleging that the defendant shot him out of jealousy. He claimed Ortiz' girlfriend, one of his campaign staff for the candidacy of a vice presidential candidate, confided that Ortiz became jealous of his closeness with her.

The prosecution believed the evidences it had presented and Torralba's identification of Ortiz as the gunman would be enough to convict Ortiz of the crime.

"The positive identification made by me and my two other witnesses is more than enough to convict him," Torralba said after the trial of the case yesterday.

Meanwhile, the prosecution in the case against ex-policeman Guillermo Wapille for killing broadcaster Edgar Damalerio also submitted its formal offer of exhibits of evidences.

State prosecutors Nicolas Sellon, Dixon Fuentes and Fernando Gubalane submitted also Edgar Amorro's affidavit executed before he was killed.

Amorro was reportedly with Damalerio when the journalist was gunned down in Pagadian City on May 13, 2002. He could have testified on his affidavits of what he saw had he not been killed also, said the prosecutors.

Wapille is currently detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center after the Supreme Court allowed the transfer of the trial of the case from Pagadian to Cebu, in the wake of reports that prosecution witnesses would be harassed while testifying in Mindanao courts.