‘Getaway car driver’ in judge’s slay falls

WHILE attending to his two ailing children at a hospital, a suspect in the November 2015 killing of a Bulacan court judge was arrested in the wee hours of Friday.

A team from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police served the arrest warrant on Jay Deogrades Joson, 29, at Prime Global hospital in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite province, around 2 a.m.

CIDG spokesperson Chief Insp. Elizabeth Jasmin said the CIDG had been conducting surveillance operations at the hospital for nearly a month, where Joson’s two children have been confined.

Joson was tagged as one of the suspects in the murder of Judge Wilfredo Nieves, who was ambushed on Nov. 11 last year in Malolos, Bulacan province.

A warrant for Joson’s arrest was issued Feb. 2 by Judge Maria Maruja Narvaiza-Mendoza of Bulacan Regional Trial Court-Branch 82. This was after he was identified by the alleged gunman, Arnel Janoras, as the driver of the getaway car used in the ambush.

Janoras also made an extrajudicial confession identifying car theft syndicate leader Raymond Dominguez as the mastermind in Nieves’ killing.

Nieves, as presiding judge of Bulacan RTC-Branch 84, convicted Dominguez in 2012 of car theft and sentenced him to a maximum of 30 years in prison.

But while in custody, Janoras was killed by the police on Nov. 23 after he allegedly grabbed the gun of one of his escorts on their way to the court for a hearing related to a different case.

The murder case pending against Joson also named Dominguez as one of the accused, although the latter is already serving his sentence at New Bilibid Prison.