"US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton will
appeal his conviction for homicide over the killing of transgender
Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in October 2014, his lawyer said yesterday. Lead counsel Rowena Flores said the defense panel would
question the verdict handed down last week by Olongapo City Regional
Trial Court Branch 74 in a petition before the Court of Appeals (CA) and
if necessary, up to the Supreme Court (SC). “We believe that Pemberton will be acquitted eventually, if
not by the Court of Appeals then by the Supreme Court,” she said in an
interview...... The trial court found Pemberton guilty, but downgraded the charge from murder to homicide. The trial court said the prosecution failed to establish that the
killing of Laude was premeditated and that there was no evidence to
support abuse of superior strength on the part of Pemberton. The court also found mitigating circumstances that led it to rule
that the killing was a homicide due to Laude trying to keep his true
gender from Pemberton. It added that Pemberton was also drunk and not in
the right frame of mind when he committed the crime.........Flores stressed the defense panel was not satisfied with the
downgrading of charge as they expected an acquittal from the trial
court. “If only the court based its decision solely on evidence, then it
should have been an acquittal. But we feared that because of the massive
pressure on this case, the judge would give in,” she lamented. Flores said the defense would prove before the CA that Olongapo City
RTC Branch 74 Judge Roline Jinez-Jabalde committed grave abuse of
discretion in finding Pemberton guilty despite reasonable doubt. She cited as example the failure of the trial court to identify the
third DNA source found in the neck of Laude, boosting their theory that
another person might have killed the victim who was supposed to be still
breathing when Pemberton left the motel. “In the court’s decision, it said that the third set probably
belonged to a policeman. We cannot accept that because that’s very
speculative. Why would a police investigator, who should follow crime
scene protocol, touch the victim’s neck with bare hands?” she stressed. Flores also pointed out the failure of the trial court to determine
who stole the money and necklace of Laude during the 30-minute period
before his body was discovered. “There was opportunity for anybody within those 30 minutes after
Pemberton left to go inside the room and kill Laude. There was that
possibility that someone else went inside the room,” she said.The lawyer said these issues would prove that the trial court erred
in finding Pemberton guilty because it was not beyond reasonable doubt
as required by law.........Former justice undersecretary Jose Justiniano said Pemberton could be
released from detention since the crime he was found guilty of is
a bailable offense.
Justiniano, who was part of the defense team of Lance Corporal
Daniel
Smith in the 2005 Subic rape case, said Pemberton may apply for
bail grant pending appeal of his conviction before the court."
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/12/07/1529961/pemberton-appeal-conviction