Prosecution of Takemoto killers won’t be supported with fingerprint evidence

By Ronron
May 26, 2005

The prosecution of the suspected killers of Shinya Takemoto will no longer be relying on the results of the examination of the fingerprints lifted from the crime scene as against the index fingerprints of the crime witnesses and suspects.

Police Chief Insp. Jose Palpito, fingerprint examiner of the Region I Police Crime Laboratory, told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview on Thursday that he did not come up with a significant result from the examination he conducted on the fingerprint samples related to the Takemoto case because of their unclear appearance.

“The questioned prints are blurred and fragmented prints. The identity of the suspects cold not be established for lack of basis,” Palpito said in his report dated May 18, 2005.

Palpito said he examined a total of 20 latent prints from the crime scene, and nine other sets of fingerprints from two crime witnesses and seven possible suspects.

The police took for examination the fingerprints of Mary Jane Takemoto, the victim’s wife, and Josefina Juan, the latter’s mother, as well as the of the following suspected possible killers: Romulo Dichoso, Rene Gabriel, Gilbert Domingo, Renante Baltazar, Ariel Baltazar, Romualdo Dichoso, and Romeo Dichoso.

“This (fingerprint examination result) is already final. We could no longer do another examination because the crime scene must have been cleared already of the latent fingerprints. This means the case against the suspects will have to proceed without this physical evidence,” Palpito said.

Police Chief Inspector Joven Aldos, Chief of Solsona Municipal Police Station in Ilocos Norte, said what is important is that there is a confession from one of the suspects.

Rene Gabriel, 24, had admitted that he and his two other friends (Gilbert Domingo and Renante Baltazar), were plotted and carried out the killing of Takemoto, 59, on the evening of May 6, 2005 in his residence in Solsona.

Palpito surmised the surface where the fingerprints were lifted must have been rough./DMS