3 more witnesses testify on Campbell’s murder

LAGAWE, Ifugao – The prosecution presented three more witnesses yesterday to buttress its murder case against prime suspect Juan Donaldo Duntugan in the killing of American Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell in an ongoing trial that resumes today.

According to Assistant provincial prosecutor Dennis Ngayawan, one of the witnesses presented by the prosecution yesterday, Dr. Dindo Herrera, a dental expert from Camp Crame, reported on the nature and extent of the injuries suffered by Campbell in her oral cavity during the crime.

PO2 Pecos Kimmayong, member of a scene of the crime operatives of the Ifugao police, was asked by the prosecution to positively identify various pieces of evidence as those they had collected from the crime scene, among them a piece of wood and a stone allegedly used by Duntugan in killing Campbell, as well as brown t-shirt and a pair of eyeglasses which allegedly belonged to her.

The third witness, Chief Inspector John Antonio of the Cordillera regional office of the PNP Crime Laboratory in Baguio City, further, testified on the chain of custody with regard to the pieces of evidence to ensure that they were not altered on the way to Camp Crame.

During the previous hearing of the case before the sala of Judge Esther Piscozo-Flor here on Aug. 22-23, the prosecution had earlier presented Julia’s mother, Linda Camp­bell, who gave a description of how her late daughter was as a person as well as the shock they felt upon learning of her killing in far-off Banaue town. 

Aside from Campbell’s mother, the prosecution had also presented a 14-year-old boy, Melvin Churbangon, who had testified seeing Duntugan running from the crime scene on the very day that Campbell was reportedly killed.

Churbangon had testified seeing Duntugan running uphill in Ballitang, Batad, Ba­naue, Ifugao, just a few meters from the slay site last April shortly after the incident.

Churbangon who was one of the boys helping tourists go around the place, said he had been playing cards with friends when he saw Duntu­gan running up from what was later found to be the 40-year-old Campbell’s shallow gravesite. 

Almost three weeks after Campbell’s remains were discovered, the 25-year-old Duntugan, who hails from Benguet, surrendered to authorities owning to the crime. 

But he said that Camp­bell’s killing had happened by accident after she allegedly bumped into him while she was on her way back to her rented cottage at Batad village in Banaue town.