A Thai court will sentence Thursday the son of a Spanish film star accused of murdering and mutilating a Colombian plastic surgeon he met online.
Case against Daniel Sancho Bronchalothe son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, 30 years old, has attracted great interest in his country, with many Spanish journalists flying to try it.
The younger Sancho, a chef with a YouTube channel, is accused of killing and dismembering Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the tourist island of Koh Pha Ngan last year.
The trial on charges of premeditated murder, concealment of bodies and destruction of documents was held in April on Koh Samui, another tourist spot known for its turquoise waters and welcoming parties.
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Sancho denies premeditated murder, but remains in custody after admitting he killed Arrieta, 44, in self-defense.
He also admitted to hiding the body, but denied destroying his Colombian passport.
The two had agreed to meet after getting to know each other online.
The trial heard that Sancho placed Arrieta’s body parts in plastic bags and distributed them around Koh Pha Ngan. Sancho led police to seven sites, where he allegedly dumped dismembered bodies in plastic bags, BBC News reported.
Although his crimes are punishable by death, Arrieta’s family says they prefer life in prison.
“Let’s leave them in Thailand so they can take time, all the time God has given them to live, to think about what they did,” Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, said in an HBO documentary about the case.
“He not only broke my brother, but also broke my family.”
Sancho’s father said in the same documentary that Arrieta had threatened his son, after “a fight, and in this fight there was an accident.”
According to IMDB, Rodolfo Sancho has dozens of film and TV credits to his name and starred in “El Ministerio del Tiempo” (“The Ministry of Time”).
“He finished her”
The defense argued that Sancho acted in legitimate self-defense after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex. Sancho told Spanish news agency EFE that he had become a “hostage” for the victim, who was obsessed with him, BBC News reported.
“He tried to rape me, and we fought,” Sancho said in a statement quoted by Spanish daily El Mundo.
According to the newspaper, Sancho said that he did not immediately tell the police about Arrieta’s death because he was shocked, and because it was all an “accident.”
But the lawyer for the victim’s family, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, said in a recent interview with El Mundo that Sancho lives a “false reality.”
“They continue to deny responsibility for what they did,” he said.
Photo by JOSE PERDOMO/AFP via Getty Images
Thai police, he added, “have done a good job” of reconstructing the crime and finding evidence.
“When Sancho went to report the disappearance of Edwin Arrieta looking for an alibi, he already knew that the author of the crime was him,” he said.
Ospina said it was proven in the trial in April that Sancho had bought knives, plastic bags and cleaning supplies ahead of the crime, and kept them in the room where the killing took place.
“This is indisputable,” he added.
He said Sancho admitted during the trial that Arrieta had a seizure after he hit him.
“In his statement he admitted that after that, he finished him. That is, he killed him,” he said.
However, the lawyer for Sancho’s family, Carmen Balfagon, told the Spanish news program Cronica that they were “very optimistic, because in the trial we showed that there was no premeditation.”
DAILYNEWS via Reuters
Koh Pha Ngan is famous for its white sand beaches and attracts thousands of backpackers to its famous “full moon” party.
In 2014, another tourist island of Koh Tao was rocked by the double murder of two young British backpackers. Two Burmese nationals were sentenced to life in prison for the murder, but rights groups have accused Thai authorities of using the men as scapegoats.
