Court convicts taxi driver for killing his passenger
The court yesterday sentenced a taxi driver to a maximum imprisonment of 17 years and four months for the killing of his female passenger at lunchtime on
Danilo Aquino, the driver of Richielda Taxi, was found guilty of killing Emerita Magno, who was dumped after being shot several times near the
A habal-habal driver found the bloodied Magno, holding on to a tree at the edge of a cliff, and immediately reported the matter to SPO1 Celso Gabunada, a policeman residing in the area, specifically at sitio lower Kalunasan.
Gabunada, on his way to the scene, recalled that he met a Richielda Taxi (with body number 72) and remembered the driver to be black with a beard and a curly hair.
Magno was still conscious and gasping for breath when Gabunada got into her, and she was able to describe to the policeman that a driver of Richielda Taxi robbed and shot her. Her description of the driver matched with the taxi driver Gabunada saw earlier.
The victim was later taken to the
Gabunada also identified later a picture of a man from a newspaper, two days later, as the same man he saw driving the taxi. Another policeman, SPO1 Elmo Rosales, was able to trace the driver of the taxi, later found to have plate number GWA 826, which was found abandoned at
It was only on
Aquino said he was ordered at gunpoint by the man to take the taxi to Kalunasan, where Magno was dumped, and to take him to Guadalupe where he disembarked.
While detained at the BBRC, Aquino saw a man, later known as Reynaldo Palma, whom he pointed at as the companion and attacker of Magno. The 39-year-old
The victim’s daughter, Maria Evelyn, however rebutted
Regional Trial Court Branch 18 Judge Gilbert Moises was not convinced of Aquino’s denial and the admission of
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