May 6
PHILIPPINES:
2 cell phone thieves face death for slay of salesman
Now crime does not pay even for cell phone robbers.
A regional trial court here has sentenced to death 2 robbers who divested
their victim of his cell phone and also killed him.
Regional Trial Court Judge Roberto Chiongson meted the death penalty on
Eduardo Pandes Yanson, 21, and Vicente de la Pea Flores, 18, after they
were found guilty of robbery with homicide.
They were also ordered to pay the heirs of the victim, Michael Salmorin,
P807,840 as compensatory damages, P30,000 for his burial, P100,000 to his
wife, Yolymar Salmorin, as moral damages, and P50,000 as death indemnity.
In his ruling, Chiongson said that the ownership of a cellular phone
brings convenience and unexpected danger, pointing out that such was the
fate of Salmorin who, on Jan. 29, 2004, lost his life to cell phone
thieves.
Salmorin, 29, a salesman at a Bacolod mall, was sending a text message
along 22nd Street near the Ama Computer School in Bacolod City at around
11 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2004 when the 2 suspects ganged up on him and stabbed
him in the chest when he refused to give up his phone.
The phone, a Nokia 6210 valued at P12,000, was a gift from his wife,
Yolymar, 26, an employee of the National Food Authority in Bacolod City.
Salmorin was rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional
Hospital by bystanders and died shortly thereafter, but he was able to
describe his assailants and the clothes they wore to his wife before he
died, court records showed.
"There can be no doubt that the utterances of Michael given at the very
moment that he was fighting for his life at the hospital are admissible as
a dying declaration," Chiongson said.
The police earlier told the court that Yanson was a hardened criminal who
had been in and out of the Bacolod City jail for various offenses. He was
also previously convicted for a drug-related case.
(source: Inquirer News Service)
