THE CNMI Supreme Court has affirmed the trial court’s conviction of Jesse James Babauta Camacho and his 45-year jail sentence for the 1998 murder of a boy in Dandan.
The high tribunal agreed with the Superior Court that the evidence was sufficient to support Camacho’s conviction of first degree murder and that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the 45-year imprisonment sentence.
“Viewing the record in the light most favorable to the prosecution, we conclude that there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable trier of fact to conclude that Camacho’s mens rea (state of mind) was ‘willful, premeditated, and deliberated,’” said the high court’s decision penned on Monday by Associate Justice Alexandro C. Castro and concurred by Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan and Associate Justice John A. Manglona.
In upholding the imposition of the 45-year jail term, the justices said the trial court engaged in an individualized assessment of Camacho’s culpability by weighing several factors before determining the sentence.
“Because our review of the record discloses no prejudicial error, there is no reasonable probability that, had the errors been avoided, the result of the trial would have been different. Under these circumstances we could not possibly find that the trial court abused its discretion,” the justices said.
They said that because the juvenile proceedings dealt with a separate and distinct offense, they found no double jeopardy violation in the government’s separate prosecution of Camacho for first degree murder.
According to the justices, juvenile certification is not required in a criminal case involving an offender who is between 16 and 18 years of age and is charged with murder.
“A juvenile court is automatically divested of jurisdiction under such circumstances, thereby subjecting the offender to the trial court’s original jurisdiction,” said the justices, stressing that Camacho has no due process right to a juvenile court certification hearing.
Court records showed that on April 30, 1998, Camacho, as self-proclaimed leader of a gang, ordered one his companions to stab the victim in a Dandan house.
