DOJ affirms murder charge vs Pemberton

United States Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton will face arraignment in an Olongapo City court on February 23 in relation to the killing of transgender Filipino Jeffrey "Jennifer" Laude in October last year. (Photo from the Olongapo City police)

MANILA -- United States Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton will have to face arraignment on February 23 after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima affirmed Friday the murder case against him in the death of a transgender Filipino woman last year.

De Lima said Pemberton's final appeal lacked merit.

"We reviewed the facts and the procedural backdrop of this case vis-a-vis the arguments in the motion for reconsideration and found no sufficient justification to reverse, alter or modify the resolution dated January 27, 2015," she said in a nine-page resolution.

Pemberton had questioned the finding of probable cause against him that was allegedly based on "additional evidence" which the Olongapo City Prosecutor's Office has allegedly no authority to receive and which he did not have the opportunity to rebut.

The evidence include Pemberton's latent print on a condom wrapper found in Room 1 of the Celzone Lodge, abrasions and light scratches on his body, and testimonies of his fellow US soldiers who were with him on the night of the incident.

He also claimed of lack of any direct evidence linking him to the crime of murder or homicide.
But de Lima said even without the "additional evidence," the Department of Justice is convinced that the American serviceman killed Jeffrey "Jennifer" Laude after picking her up in a bar in Olongapo on October 11 last year.

She cited the testimony of Mark Clarence “Barbie” Gelviro, who identified Pemberton as the man who checked in with Laude at the motel prior to the killing.

Gelviro was able to recognize the 19-year-old Marine in a photo line-up.
"The circumstance that respondent was the person last seen with Laude before and right after the commission of the crime falls within the second type of positive identification and points to respondent as the perpetrator of the crime. To us, this circumstance is sufficient to establish probable cause against respondent (Pemberton)," de Lima said.

Pemberton's murder trial hit a snag last December when Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court branch 74 suspended it for two months after the US serviceman asked for a review of the charge with the DOJ. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)