Balamban slay suspect charged

Charges of robbery with homicide were filed yesterday against a man in connection with the death of a 40-year-old mother in barangay Buanoy, Balamban town, midwest Cebu.

Cesar Carmelotes, 44, a supervisor of a Japanese company and neighbor of the victim, was taken into police custody soon after the crime occurred at dawn on Monday.

Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Jerome Abarc recommended the filing of charges before the Toledio City Regional Trial Court.

In an interview, Carmelotes denied any hand in the crime.

“I don’t know anything about what they are accusing me of,” he told reporters in Cebuano.
He said he was somewhere else attending a disco, got drunk, and was walking home when the crime took place.

Carmelotes was identified by the victim’s daughter, who was tied up with her mother by men who broke into their house while they were sleeping.

Jonalyn Abendan was stabbed 23 times in front of her daughter.

She and a 6-year-old daughter were asleep in the living room when at least two men wearing bonnets entered their house.

Abendan, a mother of five, along with her 14-year-old daughter were tied up and brought by the suspects to the toilet.

Her 6-year-old child was sleeping in the living room while her other children aged 13, 12, and 9 were sleeping in another room.

One of the intruders kept watch over the two victims while the other ransacked Abendan’s residence.

Abendan recognized one of the suspects—Carmelotes—who lived a few meters away from their house.

She then reportedly berated Carmelotes who got irked and stabbed her several times.

The robbers escaped after taking jewelry, a laptop, tablet computers, and cellular phones.

Abendan’s children have been placed in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Carmelotes was eventually arrested by the police while the other man remains at large.