Ex-cop linked to 2014 shooting spree gets 14 years
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – A court found Frenzel Mendoza, a former police officer, guilty for the death of a local businessman in a shooting spree that happened in the evening of August 7, 2014. He was sentenced to 10 to 14 years imprisonment in a decision promulgated in open court last Thursday, October 11.
After more than four years of trial, Judge Emmanuel Cacho Rasing of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 10 found sufficient evidence presented by the prosecution against Mendoza to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt for the killing of Cesar Palitog Degay who was then the manager of a bar in Poblacion, La Trinidad, Benguet.
Mendoza was also sacked as a police officer in November 2014 after he was found administratively guilty in the August 7, 2014 shooting incident that resulted to the deaths of Degay and security guard Sonny Caswang Awingan.
A certain Reymar Cosendo Copis survived
the incident but sustained minor gunshot wounds.
Court documents show that Mendoza, together with then fellow police officers Mafersan Santiago, Cid Acop and Nemer Comissing, went for a drinking binge in the evening of August 7.
Mendoza then figured in a brawl with a group of teenagers near Midtown bar in Poblacion, La Trinidad. Degay and Awingan tried to pacify the situation. Degay even shielded Mendoza who fell to the ground after being beaten by the group of teens. However, upon recovering, Mendoza pointed his gun and shot multiple times Awingan and Degay. Closed circuit television (CCTV) footages of the incident were used as evidence in the court case.
The autopsy conresulting ducted on Degay showed he suffered four gunshot wounds, one in the head and three in his back. The other murder case against Mendoza for the death of Awingan was dismissed due to the non-participation of Awingan’s family.
The court sentenced Mendoza “to suffer the indeterminate sentence of ten (10) years of prision mayor, as minimum, to fourteen (14) years, eight (8) months, and one (1) day of reclusion temporal, as maximum.” He was also ordered to pay the heirs of the victim civil damages in the amount of P50,000, moral damages in the amount of P50,000 and actual damages amounting to P165,000. Judge Rasing has ordered Mendoza to be delivered to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.