The Koh Samui Provincial Courtroom in Thailand on Thursday sentenced Daniel Sancho to life in jail after he was discovered responsible of premeditated homicide.
Sancho, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel and a member of a well-known Spanish appearing household, had been charged with the homicide of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia.
What occurred in court docket?
The court docket had initially issued a dying sentence, however this was commuted to imprisonment due to Sancho’s cooperation throughout the trial.
It additionally ordered Sancho to pay the sufferer’s household compensation of 4 million baht (round $117,500, or €106,000), Spanish media reported.
Sancho’s arrest made huge headlines not solely in Thailand and Colombia, but additionally in Spain the place his father is legendary as a movie actor.
Arrieta and Sancho had been each on trip on the island of Ko Pha-ngan — famed for its month-to-month “Full Moon” seaside events — in August final yr.
Sancho — who pleaded not responsible to fees of premeditated homicide — claimed he had gotten right into a struggle with Arrieta who he mentioned had allegedly tried to sexually assault him.
He maintained that, throughout the scuffle, Arrieta had hit his head on a tub earlier than dropping consciousness after which dying.
Responsible plea to dismemberment
Sancho pleaded not responsible to fees of premeditated homicide, however he did admit to dismembering the sufferer’s physique and disposing of the elements on land and at sea.
He acquired a four-month jail sentence, lowered to 2 months for acknowledging the act, for the cost of concealing or damaging a physique.
Sancho additionally acquired a two-year jail time period after being discovered responsible of destroying one other particular person’s paperwork — Arrieta’s passport.
The decision may nonetheless be challenged on the Courtroom of Attraction and even earlier than the Supreme Courtroom of Thailand if needed.
Sancho’s father, Rodolfo Sancho is a widely known and profitable actor in Spain and his mom Silvia Bronchalo was additionally within the career.
Each had been current for the decision, with Rodolfo Sancho telling media after the decision that he meant “to at all times hold combating, to maintain combating.”
Grisly discover sparked police probe
An investigation was launched after trash collectors discovered what the Bangkok Publish newspaper described as a sawed-off pelvis and intestines inside a fertilizer sack at a rubbish dump.
Sancho reported to police that Arrieta was lacking shortly after that, and police gathered proof that led them to detain and interrogate him.
Police informed the press Sancho had confessed to the homicide and had deliberate it as a result of Arrieta was threatening to blackmail him by revealing their alleged sexual relationship.
Police pointed to surveillance video displaying Sancho allegedly shopping for a knife, rubber gloves, rubbish baggage and cleansing options at a comfort retailer earlier than Arrieta’s dying. Prosecutors claimed this solidified the cost of premeditated homicide.