HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The shooting suspect in the Thai Thai Healthy Cuisine restaurant robbery-homicide was appointed a new attorney.
Domingo Mendiola appeared in the Superior Court of Guam on Thursday afternoon to answer to charges related to the fatal shooting of Sumittra Lairopi on Feb. 14.
However, Mendiola’s counsel, from the Public Defender Service Corp., made a motion to withdraw from the case due to a conflict of interest.
Attorney Renita Taimanao-Munoz from the PDSC explained to Magistrate Judge Benjamin Sison Jr. the need to withdraw was because her office has represented “several persons” identified in the evidence for the homicide case.
Sison subsequently asked if the Alternate Public Defender could represent Mendiola, but attorney Richard Dirkx said his office could not because the office is representing Mendiola’s co-defendant, Jenna Manibusan.
As a result, Sison appointed private attorney Arthur Clark to represent Mendiola and rescheduled Mendiola’s arraignment for March 19.
Charges
Mendiola has been charged with aggravated murder, first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm without identification and destruction of evidence, as well as a violation of a court order.
The charges were a result of a Guam Police Department investigation into the death of Lairopi, which allegedly identified Mendiola as the man wearing a white ski mask who shot Lairopi and stole her car on Feb. 14, court documents state.
An unnamed witness also spoke with police and admitted to being aware of the robbery and shooting, and stated Mendiola “discussed a plan to rob someone.”
The witness also said Mendiola needed money for an “owed drug debt,” according to the complaint.
The witness told investigators that Mendiola and Manibusan were going to rob a different woman, but the woman went into a residence before they could complete the robbery.
Mendiola allegedly claimed “he didn’t know anything about the shooting,” the complaint stated.
Mendiola and Manibusan are both being held at the Department of Corrections on $500,000 and $100,000 cash bail, respectively, as they await trial.
The Thai Thai Healthy Cuisine restaurant is seen on Feb. 16, 2024, in Tamuning.
