THE Superior Court on Friday placed Alex A. Camacho and Sidney T. Camacho under custody pending their sentencing over the killing of a Nikko Hotel security guard.
Associate Judge David Wiseman said Alex and Sidney Camacho should report to the Division of Corrections today on or before 8 a.m.
“It is important to remember that defendants have been convicted of killing a human being. They have been found guilty by a jury. Their liberty has been deprived only after due process of law and (they) thus no longer enjoy the presumption of innocence,” Wiseman said.
Last May 29, a jury acquitted the defendants of second degree murder, but found them guilty of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault and battery.
The court set the sentencing for Aug. 29.
Last June 3, the Attorney General’s Office moved to modify the bail and requested that the defendants be remanded to jail pending the sentencing.
In granting the government’s motion, Wiseman said “a reasonable interpretation of the statute is clear on its face.”
The court, Wiseman said, will follow the mandate of the statute adopted by the Legislature.
Under the statute, the judge said, the court does not have the power to grant bail after a conviction until there has been “a stay of execution of the sentence.”
At present, Wiseman said, there is no sentence from which a stay is eligible.
Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment while aggravated assault and battery carries 10 years.
According to witnesses, the defendants beat up Bernardo M. Tique in the swimming pool area at Nikko Hotel on Dec. 1, 1996.
Due to his injuries, the victim died a few days later at a Philippine hospital.
Witnesses said the defendants got upset when the security guards asked them to leave the pool because swimming was not allowed at the time.
