Man gets life term for QC killing

A Quezon City judge sentenced yesterday a former civilian employee of the Philippine Army (PA) to life imprisonment for killing a man who accosted him for urinating in front of the victim’s kitchen four years ago.

Judge Teodoro Bay of Regional Trial Court Branch 86 found Leopoldo Conlu, formerly assigned to the PA’s Third Scout Ranger Company, guilty of murder beyond reasonable doubt.

Bay also ordered Conlu to pay the heirs of the victim Edito Sanchez the sum of P100,000 for moral, actual and exemplary damages.

Court records showed that Conlu and his two companions stabbed Sanchez in front of the latter’s house on Adarna Extension in Barangay Commonwealth in Quezon City on Jan. 31, 1997.

However, police failed to arrest the two other suspects, one of whom was Conlu’s brother, Joselito.

Leonor Sanchez, widow of the victim, said Conlu and his unidentified friend held Sanchez in both arms as Joselito stabbed her husband in the chest. Not contented, the widow said Conlu also stabbed her bleeding husband in the left side of the body.

The widow noted that Conlu could have harbored ill feelings against her husband who accosted him for urinating in front of their kitchen a few days before the killing.

Conlu denied the charges, saying he was merely linked to the case.

However, Bay gave weight to the positive identification of the accused by prosecution witnesses. The judge said the alibi was a weak defense and cannot prosper unless it was shown that it was impossible for the accused to have committed the crime. – Cecille Suerte Felipe