Hearing ends over retrial for Jomsap
JUDGE’S OPINION WILL BE FORWARDED TO SUPREME COURT FOR FINAL DECISION
>> The Nakhon Phanom provincial court has ended a hearing to determine whether to hold a retrial of the 2005 hit-and-run killing case involving a former Sakon Nakhon female teacher and required that both the teacher and prosecutors submit their closing statements within 30 days.
Jomsap Saenmuangkhot was found guilty of recklessly driving a pickup truck and hitting a bicycle, killing an old male rider. She was sentenced to three years and two months in prison by the Supreme Court in 2013.
She declined to comment on the retrial case after Friday night’s hearing, saying she had said it all in court.
Jomsap was released following a royal pardon in April 2015. She later pursued a wrongful conviction case with the Justice Ministry, which eventually agreed to seek a retrial.
After the closing statement of Jomsap and prosecutors, the judge’s opinion of the hearing will be forwarded to the Supreme Court, which will then decide whether it will stand by its ruling against Jomsap or reverse it and order a retrial, according to the Sakhon Nakhon Provincial Court.
For the three-day hearing, Jomsap and her legal team focused on showing the court that Jomsap’s pickup truck had never crashed with any bicycle and the person who drove a pickup truck in the incident was a man, while prosecutors and police focused on reducing the reliability of Jomsap’s claim that Sap Wapee was the real driver in the fatal crash. Jomsap identified Mr Sap as her new evidence for her retrial request.
Jomsap said she was concerned about her safety but she was not worried about the case as she was confident in her innocence.
On the third day of the hearing on Friday, the judge heard the last six witnesses on the police side.
Pol Lt Col Kittisak Samrit, deputy chief of Renu Nakhon police station, who was a police investigator in the 2005 hit-andrun case, told the court that Suriya Nualcharoen, or teacher Ong, who is a friend of Jomsap, visited him at his office along with Thasanee Hanphayak, one of Jomsap’s witnesses who told the court that she saw a man get out the car after the crash.
Pol Lt Col Kittisak said the visitors told him at the time that Sert Roopsa-at was the real driver in the crash but he was waiting in the car.
Pol Capt Khaibancha Wangkhahad, deputy chief police investigator at the same police station, who at the time walked the two visitors to the car, told the court he saw Mr Sert and an unidentified woman sitting in the same car.
Pol Lt Col Jitt Sriyoha Mukdathanpong, a former senator for Mukdahan, told the court that on Nov 30, 2013, his friend Wijit Khamluechai led a group of 10 people to meet him and asked for help with Jomsap, reasoning she was not the real culprit, but he refused.
Among the 10 guests visiting him that day were Mr Suriya, Mr Sap, Mr Sert and Nirund Saenmuangkhot, who is the husband of Jomsap, said Pol Lt Col Jitt.
Pol Lt Col Jitt said he questioned the group and acknowledged that at the time of the crash the vehicle Mr Sap claimed he drove to crash the bicycle was not with him.
According to Pol Lt Col Jitt, Mr Suriya, who joined the group of visitors, told him that they would pay 400,000 baht in compensation to Mr Sap if the planned retrial of the case ended up with a jail sentence for Mr Sap and Jomsap’s innocence.
In a related development, Thewarat Tothaiya, director of the office of Sankon Nakhon’s elementary education Area 1, dismissed rumours spread on social media recently that Jomsap had already been reinstated as a teacher. Mr Thewarat said the regional education authority had discussed this possibility on Feb 4, but the reinstatement has yet to be approved.