PHOTO COURTESY OF NBI-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Authorities here arrested a 55-year-old U.S. citizen in Ginatilan town, southwestern Cebu on December 10, 2020 who was classified as a fugitive of his home country.
The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7), in a press release issued on December 11, 2020 by special investigator Maria Contessa Lastimoso, identified the suspect as Donald Robert Tyler.
Tyler, a native from California, is facing a standing Warrant of Arrest issued by the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for Josephine County for sodomy in the first degree.
“The U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Service, Office of the Overseas Criminal Investigation (OCI) at U.S. Embassy Manila through U.S. Attache Michelle Michaud requested the assistance of NBI-7 to locate and trace the whereabouts of Tyler,” said Lastimoso.
The arrest warrant against the suspect was released and dated November 4, 2019.
Sodomy in the first degree, according to oregonlaws.org, is a Class A felony.
The website added that persons accused of committing this crime are those who ‘engage in oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person or causes another to engage in oral or anal sexual intercourse if the victim is subjected to forcible compulsion by the suspect; is under 16 years of age and is the suspect’s brother or sister, of the whole or half-blood, the son or daughter of the suspect or the son or daughter of the suspect’s spouse; and if the victim is incapable of consent by reason of mental defect, mental incapacitation, and physical helplessness’.
Tyler was arrested by operatives of the NBI-7 and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in his house at 3:17 p.m. in Barangay San Roque, Ginatilan town where he was found to live with a Filipina common-law wife.
Based on information gathered, the U.S. citizen immediately left his country after the warrant was issued against him. He arrived in Cebu, Philippines from Bangkok on November 9, 2019.
“Tyler does not have a valid U.S. passport as all passports issued to him were already revoked by the U.S. government,” said Lastimoso.
The suspect was booked in NBI-7’s headquarters after his capture and is now under the custody of BI. /dbs
This is an updated story on previous development. Click here for the previous version of the report.