Thai court jails celebrity Son of a Spanish actor for life on Thursday for the Macabre murder of Colombian plastic surgeon on a tropical holiday island in a case that has shocked Spain.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the resort island of Koh Phangan last August.
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The case has generated huge interest in Spain because the defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a well-known actor, and many Spanish journalists have flown in to attend the trial.
Sancho’s mother, Silvia Bronchalo, also worked in the film industry and both of her parents were present at the sentencing, the Associated Press reported, adding that both are 49.
Bussakorn Kaewleeled, lawyer for the victim’s family, said family members were satisfied with the outcome.
“The plaintiff is satisfied with the sentence because he will be imprisoned for life and receive financial compensation,” Bussakorn told reporters outside the court on the island of Koh Samui.
“The verdict has been rendered, both parties have the right to appeal in accordance with Thai law,” Bussakorn added.
Asked about Sancho’s reaction, she said: “He is sad, but we cannot forget the loss of the deceased.”
The court initially sentenced Sancho to death but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment because of his cooperation during the trial, the AP reported, citing Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of Surat Thani provincial police, who attended the hearing.
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Sordid details of Arrieta’s death
Sancho claimed he killed Arrieta, 44, in self-defence and admitted hiding the body but denied destroying the Colombian’s passport.
The trial heard that Sancho cut up Arrieta’s body and placed the pieces in plastic bags before distributing them around Koh Phangan.
Sancho led police to seven locations where he allegedly dumped the victim’s dismembered body in plastic bags, CBS News partner network BBC News reported.
Although Thailand still has the death penalty for some crimes, including premeditated murder, it rarely carries out executions – the last one was in 2018.
Arrieta’s family said before the verdict that they supported a life sentence.
“Leave him in Thailand so he can take the time, all the time God gives him to live, to think about what he’s done,” Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, said in an HBO documentary about the case.
“He didn’t just dismember my brother, he dismembered a family.”
Photo by JOSE PERDOMO / AFP via Getty Images
Controversial versions of events
Sancho and Arrieta agreed to meet in person after getting to know each other online.
Sancho’s father said in the same HBO documentary that Arrieta threatened his son, and then “there was a fight, and in that fight there was an accident.”
The defense argued that Sancho acted in self-defense after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex.
“He tried to rape me and we fought,” Sancho said in a statement quoted by Spanish daily El Mundo.
Sancho testified that Arrieta fell while they were fighting and hit his head on a bathtub, lost consciousness and died, the AP reported.
Another lawyer for the victim’s family, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, said in a recent interview with the newspaper El Mundo that Sancho was living a “false reality.”
Ospina said it was proven during the trial in April that Sancho had bought knives, plastic bags and cleaning products before the crime and kept them in the room where the murder took place.
According to IMDB, Rodolfo Sancho has dozens of film and television credits to his name and starred in “El Ministerio del Tiempo” (“The Ministry of Time”).
