Raps vs mall owner’s son dismissed

A Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor dismissed yesterday for insufficient evidence the frustrated parricide charges filed against businessman Robert Puyat Martel who had been accused by his wife Melissa of shooting her on Aug. 26, 2003.

In a nine-page resolution, Senior State Prosecutor Roberto Lao said the complaint failed to show proof that Martel, whose father owns Harrison Plaza, indeed tried to kill her during a heated altercation inside their condo unit in Makati City.

Lao also noted the security guards Joel Castillo and Fidel Nimes, whom the complainant said were present during the shooting did not corroborate her narration of events and even supported the claims of her husband.

The guard also said they were not eye witnesses to the incident.

Lao said Melissa did not offer evidence to rebut the testimonies of the guards, who had been employed by the family since 2000.

Castillo said that contrary to the claims of the complainant, Martel did not direct him to bring her to the bedroom. He said Martel asked him to take the complainant to the hospital after the shooting.

For his part, Nimes said he tried to separate the couple and was told to call additional guards by Martel. He denied giving Martel a gun as guards were not allowed to bring firearms inside the units.

He said it was the wife who tried to attack Martel by getting a knife. The guard said he even suffered a cut in the left arm as he wrestled for possession of the weapon.

Nimes further narrated that Melissa tried to hit Martel with a bottle of fish sauce.

Martel said the shooting of his wife was purely accidental as they struggled for possession of a gun, which went off and hit the latter in the abdomen.

The husband also contended it was Melissa who reached for the gun during the heat of the argument.

He said they had been fighting because his wife could not accept the fact that he wanted their marriage annulled.

"No evidence was submitted to refute the veracity of the security guards’ respective declarations of what actually transpired. Given this fatal omission, complainant’s allegations respecting the circumstances which led to the shooting deserve scant consideration," Lao said. "Unrebutted as they are, the sworn declarations of Nimes and Castillo should be accorded greater evidentiary value."

The prosecutor also ruled that Melissa executed an affidavit of desistance on Oct. 15, 2003 before lawyer Marian Coquia and which her own son Paolo said was done voluntarily by his mother.

In the affidavit, she said the incident was indeed accidental and that her husband was not to blame.

"Certainly, complainant’s lawyer would have been the first to sense any legal infirmity in the execution of said affidavit and, in the same vein, would have lost no time in preventing her client to affix her signature had there really been actual force or coercion," the prosecutor held.

Being a notarized document, Lao said the desistance was entitled to full faith and credit as the notary "enjoys the presumption of regularity" in the performance of duties in verifying the veracity of the contents of the affidavit.