Vanzant’s live-in partner testifies in court about deadly Sambag 1 shooting
CEBU CITY, Philippines—The live-in partner of slain Vanzant Navales took the witness stand as a court started trial on Monday, May 20, 2019, against Michael Bacaltos on the bloody feud that killed three people on January 21, 2019.
Read more: Three dead as two former friends’ feud leads to shooting incident in Sambag 1
Cristy Mae Estoce affirmed earlier claims of their camp that Vanzant went to the residence to confront Michael, a former friend whom he had had “quarrels” with recently.
Estoce said she followed Vanzant to the Bacaltos’ residence with Vanzant’s elder brother, Vincent, and their other friends in order to pacify him.
Vanzant was killed along with father and son, Edwin and Shaun Bacaltos, after the confrontation turned into a bloody gun shootout between him and members of the Bacaltos’ family outside the latter’s residence.
Michael is now facing a homicide case before Branch 18 of Cebu City Regional Trial Court for allegedly having shot Vanzant.
Read more: Navales camp says Michael Bacaltos shot his own father
Read more: Bacaltos’s bid to raise suspect’s homicide case to murder hits another snag
Estoce claimed that it was Edwin who was attacking Vanzant and Vincent as she presented a video which she took using her mobile phone while inside their vehicle.
“I saw Edwin went outside the house carrying a firearm. I felt terrified. I did not expect that he will be bringing a firearm with him. I was thinking that they will just talk,” Estoce said in her sworn affidavit.
Lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, legal counsel of the Navales group, said Estoce’s testimony debunks the claims of the Bacaltoses that their group went to the latter’s residence to cause trouble.
“The testimony effectively dispelled the idea that the Navales group went to the Bacaltos residence to cause trouble. The truth is, the group only went after Vanzant Navales to pacify him as he was mad at Michael Bacaltos, and not to cause trouble,” Ligutan said in a statement sent to the press./dbs
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