Carjack suspects presented defense before ambush

Carjacking suspect Mark Joseph Reyes and his mother Jasmin had presented their defense on the cases filed against them before they were killed in an ambush along lliptical Road in Quezon City on Tuesday.

The court calendar of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 94 showed that Tuesday’s schedule was for the defense to present its initial evidence in connection with the car theft and illegal possession of firearms charges.

Mother and son were charged for violating the anti-car theft law. The younger Reyes and a certain Arlene Juaniza were charged with illegal possession of firearms.

olice said Juaniza, who also attended the hearing, is not Jasmin’s cousin who initially was with them in the cab prior to the shooting. The cousin got off the cab outside the Quezon City hall complex.

Court employees confirmed that the hearing pushed through, but refused to provide details. The case was raffled to the family court under Judge Roslyn RabaraTria because Mark Joseph was a minor at the time of his arrest.

Months before they were ambushed, Mark Joseph and his mother were arrested at their alleged hideout in Baliwag, Bulacan that led to the seizure of a number of stolen vehicles and raids on other lairs of the group, a police official told The STAR.

Senior Inspector Rolando orenzo, head of the anticar theft unit of the Quezon City olice istrict QC , said the police operation last ecember resulted in the recovery of some 20 stolen vehicles.

orenzo said Mark Joseph and his mother were charged with car theft but the fiscal recommended only cases for violation of the anti-fencing law.

The two posted bail a month after their arrest, according to orenzo.

Carjack ring leader still missing

orenzo said the police operation in Baliwag crippled the carjacking group allegedly led by Mark Joseph’s father, Mark ester.

Mark ester remains at-large and faces a string of carjacking cases.

QC director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano said Mark ester has yet to come out despite the death of his son and wife.

Albano said they are still establishing the motive behind the ambush.

olice are looking into the possibility that the killing could have been related to their carjacking activities.

‘Teen carjacker’

Mark Joseph was first apprehended in August 2011 for the carjacking of the Toyota ortuner of Social Security System vice president Alfredo Villasanta in Quezon City. e was only 16 at that time.

e was arrested after his father drove off the sport utility vehicle, leaving Mark Joseph behind. is mother was also arrested when she came to his rescue.

Mark Joseph was arrested again in ctober 2011 for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. It was supposed to be a non-bailable offense but since he was a minor, he was eventually released from detention.

In May 2013, Mark Joseph and a certain Christopher ucot allegedly posed as hilippine rug nforcement Agency agents and carjacked a ord scape in Cubao.

In September last year, he was again arrested for possession of a stolen onda Civic.