Pemberton arraignment set today

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines  – Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, the US Marine accused of killing Filipino transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in October last year, will be arraigned today before the regional trial court here..

Another appeal filed by Pemberton at the Department of Justice (DOJ) was rejected last week.

In a nine-page resolution signed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima promulgated on Feb. 20, the DOJ dismissed for lack of merit the motion for reconsideration filed by Pemberton in connection with the alleged murder of Laude on Oct. 11, 2014 at a hotel in Olongapo City.

”We reviewed the facts and the procedural backdrop of this case vis-à-vis the arguments in the motion for reconsideration and found no sufficient justification to reverse, alter or modify the resolution dated Jan. 27, 2015,” the DOJ resolution said.

“We also affirm the findings of the Olongapo City prosecutors on the existence of the circumstances of treachery, abuse of superior strength, and cruelty which qualify the crime to murder,” it added.

Laude and Pemberton met at the Ambyanz Nightlife Bar along Magsaysay Avenue in Olongapo City, and they checked in at the nearby Celzone Lodge where hotel employees later found Laude’s body in a room.

Pemberton earlier asked the DOJ to reconsider its Jan. 27 resolution denying his petition for review of the resolution of the Olongapo City prosecutor’s office, which found probable cause to charge the US soldier with murder as defined and penalized under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code.

Pemberton assailed the finding of probable cause purportedly based on what he called “additional evidence,” which the prosecutor’s office allegedly had no authority to receive and which he claimed he did not have the opportunity to address and rebut.

The additional evidence referred to were those the prosecutor’s office received after Pemberton was allegedly declared to have waived his right to file a counter-affidavit on Oct. 27, 2014.

He argued that the evidence on record does not establish probable cause against him for either murder or homicide.

He added that the DOJ’s finding of the existence of the qualifying circumstances of treachery, abuse of superior strength, and cruelty disregards jurisprudence requiring that these circumstances must be established by direct evidence.