Dela Victoria Slay Case Trial: Witness admits CIDG men showed suspect's photo before line-up

Pictures of Marcial Ocampo, the accused killer of Jojo dela Victoria, were allegedly showed to witnesses before he was presented to them in a police line-up, the third prosecution witness admitted to the defense lawyer during the cross examination, as the trial of the case continued yesterday.

Prosecution witness Winston Gerali, in the two-hour cross-examination, told defense lawyer Hector Fernandez that members of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group showed the picture of Ocampo to the witnesses minutes before the police line-up was done on April 17.

Testifying before Regional Trial Court judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr., Gerali said the police line-up was composed of Ocampo and five other unidentified men, whom he believed to be all policemen because they had guns although they were not in police uniform.

Gerali said that, during the police line-up, the five men were already at the CIDG lobby, while the witnesses including himself were inside a room where they could see those in the line-up through a one-way mirror.

Minutes later, Ocampo arrived escorted by the CIDG agents and he was mixed with the five men who were ahead of him, said Gerali. This prompted Fernandez to argue that the kind of police line-up that Ocampo underwent showed that witnesses already knew that the man who arrived late was Ocampo.

Fernandez asked Gerali if his affidavit was taken after the line-up, but the latter responded that it was taken before the line-up although he signed it only after Ocampo was presented to him.

Fernandez described to Judge Gako that the witnesses at the CIDG's line-up were "chopsuey," a term he meant "not credible."

Private prosecutor Fritz Quiñanola protested and countered that the witnesses he had presented so far in the trial have been credible and could stand by their statements through the hours of grilling by the defense lawyers.

Judge Gako then asked Gerali if it was possible that Ocampo was only mistaken as the gunman because his physical built resembled that of the gunman.

But Gerali just smiled and said he is "100 per cent sure" that it was Ocampo who shot and killed Dela Victoria outside the latter's house at barangay San Roque in Talisay City on April 12.

"Gikulbaan gani kaayo ko pagkakita niya (Ocampo) didto sa CIDG office. Mi-request ko nga pasul-obon siya og kawo, og misamot nga nailhan g'yod nako nga siya ang mipusil ni Dela Victoria," Gerali answered the judge.

It was Gerali who testified seeing the killer of Dela Victoria had a brown belt and a police badge.

Fernandez questioned the failure of the CIDG to deposit to the court such items that were taken from Ocampo when he was "illegally" arrested five days after Dela Victoria was killed.

Gako directed the private prosecutors to make sure that their witness Evan Echavez would be presented in the next hearing of the case on Tuesday.

Echavez was reportedly among those who chased the gunman after killing Dela Victoria. He allegedly saw also the face of the man who served as back up of the killer. - Rene U. Borromeo