Jail guard draws 2 life terms for selling ‘shabu’ in Itogon

BAGUIO CITY — A jail guard who was busted last year for selling illegal drugs in Itogon, Benguet, has been sentenced recently to suffer the penalty of two life terms in prison.

Judge Emmanuel Cacho of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 3 found Senior Jail Officer 1 (SJO1) Donald Tauli Kelly Jr., assigned to the Benguet District Jail, guilty of possession and sale of illegal drugs.

Kelly, a resident of Ucab, Itogon, was arrested in an entrapment operation conducted by the Baguio City Police Office’s Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) on Sept. 3, 2017.

For his crime of selling 1.43 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) to a covert agent of the DEU, the member of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) was sentenced to one life term in jail.

Judge Cacho handed him another life sentence for possession of six grams of shabu in the same operation.

After his sentencing last June 20, Kelly is now awaiting his transfer to the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.