Prosecutors differ on fatal mauling case

Former department store intelligence officer Melvin Boyles, who was dropped from the case, demonstrates how Mario Ducayag was beaten up with Cebu Daily News reporter Ador Vincent Mayol role playing as the victim.

Was the fatal mauling of Mario Alfie Ducayag a murder or homicide?

Before city prosecutor Nicolas Sellon issued the final resolution on the Ducayag mauling case, Assistant City Prosecutor Gandhi Truya said he found no sufficient  evidence to prove that the suspects intended to kill the victim.

In his earlier resolution, Truya recommended that Jeffrey Aquino and Mauricio Doblados Jr.— the department store’s former security camera operator and chief security officer respectively—be charged with homicide.

“The undersigned can’t find any admission or fact from which a conclusion can be derived that in fact Aquino intended to make Ducayag defenseless and immobile when the (victim was handcuffed),” he said.

Truya, who resolved the motion for reconsideration filed by the respondents, said records of the case showed that Ducayag’s sarcastic remark “nakabayad na lagi ko sir. (I already paid for the sandals)” angered Doblados who ordered Aquino to handcuff the victim.

Excessive, violent means

“Therefore, the subsequent incident involving Aquino hitting Ducayag was not premeditated. It was rather a product of excessive and violent means to subdue a suspect which to them appears to be resisting their arrest,” Truya said.

He said while Ducayag’s death is never justified and his mauling is unlawful, the elements of treachery, abuse of superior strength, evident premeditation and “other aggravating and qualifying circumstances” are absent in the case.

“The case that can arise from those wrongful acts can only be homicide,” Truya said.

The third suspect, former Gaisano Metro Colon confidential intelligence officer Melvin Boyles, was dropped from the case.

Prosecutors said Boyles didn’t participate in the handcuffing and mauling of the victim even if he was inside the security office when the incident happened.

Evident

Upon review of Truya’s findings, Assistant City Prosecutor Oscar Capacio said the proper case to be filed against the respondents is murder, not homicide. Capacio also said that Boyles should be impleaded in the case.

Sellon, who had the final say on the case, said Aquino and Doblados should be charged with murder in court because the attack made on Ducayag was accompanied by treachery.

Cited a Supreme Court ruling, Sellon explained that when “one attacks another with treachery but without intent to kill and death results, the crime is murder.”

Sellon said the element of treachery was evident when Ducayag was handcuffed by the two suspects before he was repeatedly boxed and kicked until he lost unconsciousness.

The chief city prosecutor nonetheless agreed with Truya in dismissing the complaint against Boyles who had no participation in the crime.

Autopsy

With Sellon’s order, Aquino and Doblados will be facing charges before the Regional Trial Court.

Under the law, murder is a non-bailable offense. Ducayag, a father of two, was taken into custody on suspicion of shoplifting when he couldn’t show a receipt for a pair of Sandugo brand slippers in his shopping bag.

Ducayag was mauled inside the security office of Gaisano Metro Colon on April 12, 2013.

An autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) revealed that Ducayag died due to “traumatic neck injuries.”

Aquino’s lawyer Salvador Solima said they will contest the ruling before the Department of Justice.