Father closer to solving son’s death
Ernie Del Pinto made his murdered son a promise on Friday.
It’s the same promise he’s made for four years, while grieving at his son’s marker at the Queen’s Park Cemetery.
“Like I always do, I said: ‘Leo, I will get to the bottom of this, I promise you,’ ” Del Pinto said Friday, on the fourth anniversary of his son, Leo Del Pinto’s death in Thailand.
“I wish you were here, but I promise you I will never give up.”
This time, though, the father is a little more confident that the family is inching closer to justice in Leo’s slaying with recent word from Thai authorities and the Canadian ambassador that the case will go ahead.
“They have finally confirmed there will be a trial,” Del Pinto said. “I have been waiting four years to hear those words and this is the first time.”
But the father isn’t holding his breath. “Now, the only question is: when? I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I expected to know by now. I haven’t totally lost faith yet.”
Nearly one year ago, the Thai police officer charged with fatally shooting Leo, 25, outside a restaurant in the Thai village of Pai on Jan. 6, 2008, was sent to jail. Leo’s friend Carly Reisig was also shot, but survived.
Sgt. Uthai Dechachiwat was sentenced to 25 years in prison last January after pleading guilty to the clubbing death of his 18-year-old pregnant wife. The accused had at one time said he was acting in self-defence, but he has since been charged with first-degree murder in Leo Del Pinto’s death.
Amid a slow, pretrial process for the Del Pinto death, Dechachiwat was charged, and later pleaded guilty to the murder of his young, pregnant wife last fall.
Ernie Del Pinto says it’s not enough that Dechachiwat is already serving time in prison.
“People assume that should be enough for me, but that’s not justice for my son,” said the father. “That’s not justice for Leo and as long as I am alive I am going to keeping fighting for my kid.”
The past four years have been difficult for the Del Pinto family, although there have been highlights, including his daughter’s upcoming wedding.
“But mostly this makes me feel empty,” he said. “I used to the mausoleum every day but as the years go by I go every second or third day. I have nothing else to say to my son anymore. I wish he was here and I wish for justice.”