(Eagle News) — The Court of Appeals has effectively affirmed the guilty verdict meted out by a lower court against Jason Ivler for the killing of the son of a former Malacanang official in 2009.
This was after the appellate court’s 14th division junked Ivler’s appeal for the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 84 to reverse its decision in November 2015.
In that decision, Judge Luisito Cortez found Ivler, nephew of singer Freddie Aguilar, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of shooting Renato Ebarle Jr. dead over a traffic altercation in Quezon City on November 18, 2009.
The lower court sentenced Ivler to reclusion perpetua or a maximum jail term of 40 years, and ordered him to pay the family of Ebarle, son of Renato Ebarle Sr., presidential chief of staff under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration, a total of P9.373 million for civil damages.
In its decision though, the appellate court increased the actual damages–from the original P143,890 representing burial expenses to P616,590; from P75,000 in moral damages to P100,000; and from P30,000 in exemplary damages to P100,000.
These were apart from the civil indemnity charges amounting to P100,000 the appellate court ordered Ivler to pay.
In affirming the lower court’s decision, the CA debunked Ivler’s argument that the “eyewitnesses had no ample opportunity to view the perpetrator because the crime rapidly unfolded in front of them and they lacked focus as they were inflicted with a paralyzing fear brought by a shocking experience.”
“It is not unnatural for the eyewitnesses to have a detailed recollection of the incident especially the identity of the shooter. It is not improbable that they could, with certainty, identify Ivler as the man who shot Renato Ebarle Jr.,” the appellate court said.
The CA also emphasized that “treachery,” an element of murder, was present in the case.
The appellate court’s decision was penned by Associate Justice Ramon Cruz.
Concurring with him were Justices Ricardo Rosario and Pablito Perez. With a report from Moira Encina, Eagle News Service
