Only one witness showed up yesterday at the Regional Trial Court Branch 41 in Bacolod City for the hearing of the murder case filed against a teenager tagged in the brutal killing of Dr. Andres Gumban.

Andrei Saril, legal counsel of Gumban's family, said they were supposed to present Senior Police Officer 1 Karyl Mugemulta of Police Station 7 in court, being the apprehending officer and the one who discovered the video of the brutal killing in the cellular phone of the 16-year-old suspect from Cadiz City, whose name is being withheld as he is a minor.

However, Saril said, he was informed that Mugemulta was on leave and so he asked the court to send him a subpoena so he can attend the next hearing set November 19, where the video of the brutal killing will be presented.

Saril said he expects that Judge Ray Alan Drilon could hand down his decision on that day after watching the video of the killing.

He said although the minor had pleaded guilty during his arraignment in July, the law requires that criminal liability must be proven since the maximum penalty for a murder charge is 40 years imprisonment.

Presented as prosecution witness yesterday was Jonathan Maniego of Phase 3 Regent Pearl Homes Subdivision, Brgy. Alijis, Bacolod and a neighbor of Gumban.

He told the court that he was resting at home on the night of May 10, this year, when he heard a commotion from the house of the doctor.

Maniego further testified that he peeped through the window and saw bloodstains on the wall and the minor. The minor told him that he stabbed Gumban because the doctor threatened him with a knife and made sexual advances, Maniego said.

Carrying a .45 caliber pistol, Maniego said he asked the minor and his companion, Fof Pascual, 18, of Brgy. Tadlong, Sagay City, Negros Occidental, to get out of the house and ordered them to lie flat on the ground until Ivan Amor, a purok official in Brgy. Alijis, came and helped him.

Maniego added that when he went inside the doctor's house and saw him lying in a fetal position in the restroom, already lifeless.

The prosecution team led by Saril also presented the cellular phones of Pascual and the minor, whom the doctor had met through Facebook.*APN

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