Two men in chop-chop case refuse to enter plea in court

The two men accused in the gruesome killing of a nursing graduate and her cousin in Talisay City last month refused to enter a plea during the arraignment yesterday of the twin murder charges while their female co-accused pleaded not guilty.

Richard Gudelosao and Joseph Cellar, who earlier admitted in media interviews to the killing of Eva Mae Peligro and her cousin Gwendolyn Balasta, did not answer when asked by the court whether or not they are guilty of the crime.

A plea of not guilty however was entered in the record upon the manifestation of their lawyer, Salvador Solima.

The other accused Jean Antonette Medalle, assisted by former graft investigator Richard Bauzon, pleaded not guilty to the twin murder charges.

The court has scheduled the pre-trial conference of the case on September 12.

The three accused, clad in orange prison uniform and handcuffed on both wrists, went to court yesterday and faced the families of the victims.

Gudelosao and Cellar, who earlier owned up to strangling Peligro and Balasta and then chopping up their bodies into pieces last July 24 in barangay Maghaway, Talisay City appeared disturbed and could not look at the people eye-to-eye.

The two constantly bowed their heads in the close to two hours that they were in the courtroom until they were ushered by their fully armed escorts out of the Palace of Justice.

Peligro’s parents came all the way from Bohol to attend the arraignment.

Diosdado Peligro broke down into tears while listening to the court staff read the information of the case to the three accused detailing the manner how his daughter was killed.

Talisay City Prosecutor Marshal Rubia said the prosecution will utilize the extra-judicial confessions made by the accused in proving their case.

Rubia is assisted by two private prosecutors hired by the family of the victims.

The private lawyers helping out in the prosecution of the case are Albert Hontanosas and Allan Legaspi.

The private prosecutors yesterday asked in open court that be given 10 days to comment on the pending motion of Solima to have his clients Gudelosao and Cellar submitted to a psychiatric examination.

Solima originally asked that his clients will be examined supposedly before their arraignment allegedly to make them “realize the consequence of their plea.”

According to Solima, the manner the crime was committed is “revolting and apparently the accused were under the influence of drugs whose mental faculties have been distorted.”

Rubia did not comment on the motion yet in deference to the two private prosecutors hired by the family of the victims.

Gudelosao, a taxi driver, and house caretaker Cellar earlier admitted to strangling Peligro and Balasta before chopping them up using a kitchen knife.

According to them, they cut up the victims’ bodies and placed in 13 garbage bags before they were thrown separately in the mountain barangays of Toledo, Naga and Talisay cities and Minglanilla town.

Gudelosao admitted to the police that he killed Peligro, who was his younger brother’s fiancee, for passing on intrigues to his brother and mother in the United States, which resulted to the cutting off of his monthly allowance.

Balasta was also killed to remove any possible witness to the killing. — Fred P. Languido/NLQ