Suspect in Frenchman’s slay retracts confession

CEBU — Just as police had feared, the main suspect in the killing of a Frenchman in Lapu-Lapu City last weekend, took back his earlier admission of the crime.

"Dili ako ang gabuhat ana. Dili gyud nako mabuhat nga patyon si Kuya Marc. Buotan gud to siya (I didn’t do it. I really could not kill Marc. He was really kind)," said 19-year-old Leonardo Baynos, a former ward at the orphanage ran by victim Marc Raoul Louvel.

Louvel was found dead with stab wounds in the chest inside his home in Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City Saturday night. He was the director of the Terre Sans Frontier Children’s Center.

Baynos also denied having engaged in homosexual sex with Louvel amid allegations that the foreigner was a pedophile who abused the young boys in his care, one of them Baynos who allegedly killed him out of revenge.

Baynos said he first met Louvel in 1998 when he was brought from his hometown of Tabulasan, Negros Occidental to finish Grade 6 at the center.

He admitted rumors were rife about Louvel allegedly having sex with some of the boys at the center but that he never saw anything to support them.

He said he left the orphanage voluntarily the following year, and that he was not kicked out for using drugs.

He said he confessed to having been the sexual partner of Louvel and of having killed the Frenchman out of revenge because he was confused and not in his right mind when police arrested him in the home of an uncle in Talisay City Monday night.

"Nakurat gyud ko adtong pag pick-up nako sir. Wala ko sa mood nako (I was really surprised when I was picked up. I was not in the mood)," Baynos said, claiming he had a nervous breakdown and that he had not eaten since morning of that day.

It became apparent to police and reporters that each time he talked, he appeared to be in a daze, as if under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.

The other day, the Lapu-Lapu City police filed a complaint for robbery with homicide against Baynos after two wards at the center issued sworn statements pointing to him as Louvel’s alleged attacker.

Police also found evidence which Baynos allegedly left at the scene of the crime: a checkered t-shirt and a pair of pants.

Witnesses said they saw Baynos coming back several times to Louvel’s house, looking for the French national the day he was murdered.

Louvel used to support Baynos’ studies until he kicked him out of the center upon learning he was hooked into illegal drugs and skipping classes.

One of the witnesses claimed to have been awakened by Louvel’s shouts for help shortly before midnight, and to have actually seen him being stabbed allegedly by Baynos.

He said he and another witness saw Baynos close the door to Louvel’s room and the main door and turn off the lights. They were the ones who called up the police after Baynos left.

Baynos had tried to escape from his police escorts who accompanied him to the place where he said he had thrown the icepick he used in the killing, but was cornered after a brief chase.

French consul Richard Forteau visited Louvel’s home the other day and took custody of several important documents such as bank statements and identification cards. — Freeman News Service