MANILA, Philippines – Dalia Guerrero-Pastor, the wife of international racing champ Enzo Pastor, has asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the implementation of an arrest warrant against her.
A Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) earlier ordered her arrest for the killing of her husband in June 2014. She was charged with parricide for allegedly conniving with businessman Domingo "Sandy" de Guzman to kill Enzo on June 12, 2014.
De Guzman and the alleged gunman, Police Officer Edgar Angel, face murder charges.
Dalia also sought the dismissal of the criminal case filed against her by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ said Dalia apparently supplied the gunman with information on her husband's whereabouts, while De Guzman gave the hired cop the means to carry out the plan.
But in a 48-page petition for certiorari, Dalia, through her lawyer Ruy Alberto Rondain, maintained that RTC judge Luisito Cortez committed grave abuse of discretion for finding probable cause in her case even without evidence against her.
Dalia insisted that no other evidence exists aside from the statements of the gunman that would prove she conspired with him and De Guzman in killing Pastor. Angel initially tagged Dalia and De Guzman as masterminds in Pastor's murder.
The wife also noted in her petition that investigators failed to establish her presence at the crime scene.
"There is nothing else which links Dalia to this crime. Yet from these statements the prosecution has insinuated a criminal conspiracy between Dalia, Angel and Sandy.... But the evidence does not support this. In the first place, Angel has retracted his two statements and has disclosed that he was tortured and coerced into signing them," the petition read.
The international car racer was killed in June 2014 at the corner of Congressional and Visayas Avenues in Quezon City while on his way to a competition in Pampanga. He sustained gunshot wounds in the head, neck, and arms.
In a resolution last February, the DOJ said that while there was no evidence that Dalia and De Guzman were directly involved in the murder, there was "interlocking circumstantial evidence that would point to their complicity in the commission of the crime."
It cited the affidavit of Chona Domen, the househelp of the Pastors, who detailed what she knew about the affair that the suspects were having.
Dalia's name is on the wanted list of the international police organization Interpol. The family of Pastor has also offered a P1-million reward for information that could lead to the arrest of Dalia and De Guzman.– Rappler.com