Kian murder trial nears end
The trial of three police officers accused of killing and planting evidence on 17-year-old Kian delos Santos may soon be concluded, with the prosecution set to finish its presentation of evidence this week.
This developed as the prosecution wrapped up its evidence Monday, when Chief Inspector Jocelyn Padilla Cruz, medico-legal officer at the Northern Police District, gave his testimony.
Cruz, who conducted the autopsy on Delos Santos, testified that two bullets pierced the boy’s head from behind his left ear and exited on the right side of the head, indicating that one or two assailants “possibly” shot the teenager at least two feet from behind while Delos Santos was sitting or kneeling down.
When the defendants countered that Delos Santos could not have been shot while sitting or kneeling down because the bullet trajectory was “slightly upward,” the witness said the impact of the bullet on the skull and the movement of the head may have resulted in the bullets’ one centimeter upward trajectory.
The prosecution said Cruz’s testimony complements that of an earlier witness who saw the plainclothes assailants shove Delos Santos down before shooting him on Aug. 16, 2017, and that of the National Bureau of Investigation ballistician Hayasmin Abarrientos who said the downward direction of the bullets based on the graze and dents in the crime scene suggest the assailant was standing while pointing his gun downward.
Caloocan Regional Trial Court Branch 125 Judge Ro- dolfo Azucena Jr. in open court said the next hearing tomorrow will be for the oral offer of evidence.
The judge said he will not allow the prosecution to just submit a written offer of evidence. This means that the prosecution would verbally offer the pieces of evidence in open court to conclude the prosecution’s presentation of evidence.
The defense will be given an option to either present their own witnesses or file a leave for demurrer if it is convinced the prosecution’s evidence is weak enough for the case to be dismissed.
The judge in open court said the case may be resolved within the year.
The lawyers for Police Officer 3 Arnel Oares and PO1s Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz said the autopsy results and the witness testimonies were hearsay evidence and do not prove that the policemen intentionally killed the teenager.
Police alleged Delos Santos was a drug runner who fought back in a police operation on Aug. 16, 2017. His body, found slumped in the mud with a gunshot wound in the head, suggested he was shot while defenseless, the prosecution has said.
The teenager’s death sparked outrage against police abuses in the administration’s war on drugs. A court decision would mark the first acquittal or conviction of police officers for alleged abuses in connection with the drug war.
Besides murder, the lawmen also face planting of evidence charges for allegedly putting a gun on Delos Santos’ left hand, even though the boy was right-handed, and planting drugs on his body.