Charges filed against suspects in killing of lawyer

A LIFE brutally snuffed out in front of her young children spoke of a heartbreaking horror that no family should have gone through.

But advocacy lawyer Manuelita Mascariñas-Green is dead and her three children — a 10-year-old and 2-year-old twins — are left motherless with her untimely death.

As the community grapples with the heartbreak left behind by the tragedy, Manuelita’s husband, British national Stuart James Green, trooped to the Office of the City Prosecutor in Bohol last February 18 to file murder charges against Lloyd Lancer Gonzaga, the alleged mastermind, Romarico Benegi-an, the suspected gunman, and two other unidentified suspects, who all remain at large.

In his affidavit, which he attached to support the filing of murder and multiple attempted murder against the four, Green narrated how the lady lawyer used her body as a shield to protect her three children inside the vehicle during the ambush.

Green, who was out of the country during the ambush, also attached to his complaint the affidavit of his children’s nanny who saw Gonzaga and Benegi-an shot his wife multiple times.

Gonzaga, the manager of Alona Embrace Hotel and Benegi-an, one of the suspected gunmen, were identified by witnesses as among those who shot and killed the 49-year-old lawyer.

Witnesses had also identified Benegi-an as one of the four men on board two motorcycles who ambushed the lawyer’s Toyota Innova at the corner of H. Zamora and J.A. Clarin Streets in Dao District on her way home to Loon, Bohol at past 4 p.m. of February 15.

The lawyer was allegedly caught in the dispute between her client, Conrada Blomqvist, and Gonzaga, who claimed ownership of Alona Embrace.

In a previous interview, Blomqvist revealed that Gonzaga is her son-in-law and that they had been involved in a legal dispute over the ownership of the resort. The lawyer and Blomqvist were reportedly on the verge of winning the case.