CA halts Ruby Rose Barrameda murder trial

(Updated 9:35 p.m.) The Court of Appeals has stopped trial on the killing of Ruby Rose Barrameda, whose body was found at the bottom of Manila Bay in 2009 two years after she went missing, a GMA News report said Sunday.   The report said Associate Justice Agnes Reyes-Carpio of the CA 11^th Division ruled in favor of a petition filed by Manuel Jimenez Jr., Barrameda’s father-in-law and one of the accused in the murder case, seeking the inhibition of the judge hearing the case.   In his petition, Jimenez accused Judge Zaldy Docena of the Malabon Regional Trial Court Branch 170 of grave abuse of discretion in handling the Barrameda case.

According to petitioner, Docena refused to inhibit in the case despite that the head of the prosecution panel, State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva, was his former classmate at the Ateneo Law School.

The said that there is a need to suspend the Barrameda murder case trial considering that the issue of Docena’s inhibition would have a bearing in the case.

“Should we find public respondent (Docena) to have been partial, as claimed by herein petition, then petition as an accused therein, is deprived of his right to an impartial trial,” the CA held.

Last December, the CA issued a TRO on the Barrameda murder trial, which has been running for two years now. The TRO lapsed last month.   Barrameda’s body was recovered inside a steel drum in Navotas in 2009—two years after the victim was reported missing.   The body was found through witness Manuel Montero, Jimenez’s former employee.   Also accused in the case were Barrameda’s husband, Manuel Jimenez, and fishing magnate Lope Jimenez, the victim’s uncle-in-law. The suspects have denied involvement in the killing.   Barrameda is the sister of former actress and beauty queen Rochelle Barrameda. - Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News