Campbell killer may plead guilty to lesser offense

LAGAWE, Ifugao – The trial of Juan Donald Dontugan, the suspect in the killing of American Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell last April, resumes here today with Dontugan expected to enter a plea bargain for conviction to the lesser offense of homicide.

Banaue Regional Trial Court Judge Esther Piscozo-Flor said she had received feelers from Dontugan’s lawyers regarding the plan but said any plea bargain should have the consent of the prosecution.

“If they (prosecutors) accept, then all I have to do is pronounce Dontugan guilty of homicide with the appropriate penalty.”

Homicide carries a lower 20-year sentence while murder is punishable with life imprisonment because it involves treachery and cruelty. Life imprisonment is the maximum penalty for murder with the abolition of the death penalty.

“In case no plea bargain is achieved, we will be pushing through with the pre-trial and the presentation of evidence in the morning, followed by the trial proper in the afternoon and again the following day.”

Provincial prosecutor Joseph Tumapang is getting help from a four-man private prosecutor team from the Baguio-based Agranzamendez Liceralde Gallardo and Associates law firm headed by University of the Cordilleras law dean Reynaldo Agranzamendez.

It is unclear if Dontugan’s counsel, Pedro Mayam-o, will show up today after being reprimanded and fined P100 by Flor for skipping the afternoon hearing on July 23.

Mayam-o’s no-show almost forced Flor to postpone the July 23 hearing, if not for the unexpected appearance of backup defense counsel Eugene Ballitang.

Dontugan, 25, admitted bludgeoning the 40-year-old Campbell to death by accident after he allegedly mistook her for a hostile neighbor in Batad village in Banaue. – Charlie Lagasca