TACLOBAN CITY– A lawyer who has been earlier tagged to have shot and killed an architect inside a school campus seven years ago was acquitted by a regional trial court here.
Lawyer Aquilino Mejica was acquitted of the murder charge by the court for lack of probable cause.
The court said that for Mejica to be convicted of the charge against him, not only due to circumstantial evidence but also on direct evidence.
“Be it noted that the accused was convicted not by direct evidence but by circumstantial evidence. Nobody saw the accused killed the victim,” Judge Evelyn Lesigues, the presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court-Branch 43, said on her decision.
Earlier, Mejica was convicted for killing Archimedes Moscare by Judge Alphinor Serrano of the RTC-Branch 6.
The accused, however, filed for inhibition against Serrano resulting in Judge Lesigues handling the murder case.
The murder case against Mejica happened on June 6, 2016 inside the engineering building of Leyte State University.
|”I want to thank God for my acquittal (and) I want to thank Judge Lesigues for being just. She applied the law, rules on evidence and applicable jurisprudence,” he said.
He also expressed his gratitude to his wife and family including their relatives and friends for their ‘unceasing love and support.’
Mejica was detained at the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog on April 11, 2019 and was released from prison on May 6,2022.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
