Arrested
Police: Pastor ‘brains’ in wife’s slay
By Chito O. Aragon
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 14:27:00 02/20/2009
His cellular phone gave him away.
Pastor Leonardo Jastiva was arrested yesterday after police discovered that one of his cellular phones had the same number allegedly used by the alleged kidnappers of his wife, Judith.
Jastiva was arrested inside the homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) about 2 p.m. yesterday after the discovery.
The Philippine chapter president of the International Missionary Society of Seventh Day Adventist would be charged with parricide for allegedly masterminding his wife’s killing.
“As of today, we have officially arrested Leonardo Jastiva for parricide charges for the killing of his wife,” said Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., CCPO director.
Policemen were now trying to determine if Jastiva had accomplices.
Comendador said there were strong circumstantial and physical evidence against Jastiva, particularly with the recovery from his possession of the cellular phone supposedly used by the kidnappers to send him text messages about the whereabouts of his wife.
Jastiva reported to the police on Feb. 9 that his wife Judith was abducted by car-riding men along barangay Labangon in Cebu City about 8 p.m. on that day.
He claimed he was driving his motorcycle with his wife as his back rider when their path was blocked by a car.
He said he was chained to his motorcycle while his wife forcibly taken by the armed men.
But the police doubted his story when they could not find any witness in the area where the incident was supposed to have happened. It was a busy intersection and it was impossible that no one could have witnessed the abduction, the police said.
Jastiva claimed his wife was abducted by a group of men belonging to a rival religious group. He, however, refused to execute affidavit to formalize his allegation. Also, no ransom demand was reported.
On Tuesday night, he claimed to have received text messages from the alleged kidnappers that said that Judith was already dead and could be found in sitio Cantipla Uno, barangay Tabunan, Cebu City.
Jastiva forwarded the message to Senior Insp. George Ylanan, chief of the CCPO’s Criminal Investigation and Detective Management (CIDM).
The initial search on Tuesday evening failed to locate the body. But on Wednesday, a resident grazing his goat found her decomposing body in a grassy slope around 30 meters from the main road.
Policemen found a few meters away a pair of black sandals, two unused condoms, an eggplant with a condom on it, a dog chain, a pair of eyeglasses and three empty energy drink bottles.
The undergarments of the woman were found near her body. She still wore a red shirt with a guitar print in front and a black skirt.
Jastiva identified the body as that of his wife due to the scars on the left knee, which he said she got from a motorcycle accident.
The police believed that Judith was killed about a week before her body was found.
Yesterday, the police conducted an ocular inspection in sitio Cantipla Uno and asked Jastiva to join them.
Jastiva came with his three children. The police team also brought Jastiva to the area where Judith’s black jacket was found and to Labangon where the alleged kidnapping happened.
At the area where the body of his wife was found, Monilar asked Jastiva to turn over to him the latter’s cellular phones.
He said he intentionally asked for the pastor’s cell phones at the site where his wife’s body was discovered to make him aware that they had doubted his accounts surrounding Judith’s disappearance.
Senior Insp. Mario Monilar, chief of CCPO’s homicide section, said Jastiva looked nervous as he turned over his phones to the police.
At the police office, Ylanan ordered PO2 Jerybelle Lerio to transcribe all messages recovered from cellular phones.
Lerio then discovered that the number used on the blue Motorola cellular phone was the same as that used by the supposed “kidnapper” because the number was the same one that showed up on Jastiva’s Nokia phone identifying himself as the kidnapper.
Also, the cellular number allegedly owned by the “kidnapper” – 09268187329 – was the same number that Jastiva gave to some reporters as his contact number.
A day before Judith’s body was found, Ylanan said they already suspected that Jastiva was the “kidnapper.”
Ylanan recalled that on Tuesday morning after Jastiva informed him about the supposed text message giving the location where his wife’s body was dumped, the pastor made some conditions before he agreed to go the site.
“I went along with his conditions so he would cooperate with us,” Ylanan said.
He said Jastiva asked that “the incident should not be reported to any police office; it would not be reported to the media; the body would be buried immediately; and no investigation was to be conducted.”
Ylanan said the conditions made him more suspicious of Jastiva.
Comendador said that based on the text messages of the alleged kidnapper, it appeared that the wife might had been involved in an extra-marital affair.
One of the text messages on Feb. 18 from the “kidnapper’s” cellular phone said, “Adto miagi Sunday may gisabotan nami wipe nimu piru midumili sya og amo nasayran may lain pud diay siay gikalambigit, di gyud siya motug-an mao nahinaykan nuon piru gibasulan naku pastor (Last Sunday, your wife and I agreed on something but she backed out and I learned that she is involved with someone else. She would not tell me who so I got carried away but I am sorry for what I had done, pastor).”
Monilar said other text messages made it appear that Judith was being “punished” and that the pastor was the aggrieved party.
Monilar said the other items recovered near the body were believed to be mere props to confuse investigators and make it look like she was gang-raped.
Supt. Nestor Sator, the medico legal officer of the PNP in Central Visayas, said he could not determine if she was raped because the body was already decomposed.
Sator said his autopsy showed that the victim’s skull was fractured, indicating that she was hit by a hard object on the right portion of her head.
Sator said the victim could have been killed there or the body was just dumped there. If she was dumped, Sator said it was possible that other persons were involved in the crime.
Before the pastor was placed under arrest, many of his supporters went to the CCPO as a show of support but they quickly disappeared after the pastor was placed under arrest.
Jastiva’s neighbors in barangay Isidro, Talisay City said they still could not believe that he masterminded his wife’s murder.
The neighbors swarmed outside the International Missionary Society (IMS) of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
The house of the controversial pastor is located at the back of their church but no one came out to face the curious onlookers and the media.
Some neighbors, however, said that if it were true that the pastor killed his wife, they would feel betrayed because they had been defending Jastiva before police investigators.
The president of IMS’ rival movement, Pastor Allan Alingalan of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement (SDARM) and his wife Arlene, could not also believe that a pastor could harm his wife.
Arlene was a close friend of Judith and they used to see each other almost every day.
Arlene said they stopped meeting when she got pregnant and found it hard to leave her house. She said the last time they saw each other was in August of last year during the wedding of the Jastivas’ 19-year-old daughter.
“We’re friends. We never had problems. We would buy each others’ stuff. She would buy my tofu, and I would buy her soap and many more,” Arlene said.
Although they do not belong on the same group, Arlene and Allan never considered the IMS as their rival group. They only realized that they were supposed to be on opposite sides when they heard reports that Leonardo tagged them as rival groups. /With a report from Marian Z. Codilla
Police: Pastor ‘brains’ in wife’s slay
By Chito O. Aragon
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 14:27:00 02/20/2009
His cellular phone gave him away.
Pastor Leonardo Jastiva was arrested yesterday after police discovered that one of his cellular phones had the same number allegedly used by the alleged kidnappers of his wife, Judith.
Jastiva was arrested inside the homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) about 2 p.m. yesterday after the discovery.
The Philippine chapter president of the International Missionary Society of Seventh Day Adventist would be charged with parricide for allegedly masterminding his wife’s killing.
“As of today, we have officially arrested Leonardo Jastiva for parricide charges for the killing of his wife,” said Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., CCPO director.
Policemen were now trying to determine if Jastiva had accomplices.
Comendador said there were strong circumstantial and physical evidence against Jastiva, particularly with the recovery from his possession of the cellular phone supposedly used by the kidnappers to send him text messages about the whereabouts of his wife.
Jastiva reported to the police on Feb. 9 that his wife Judith was abducted by car-riding men along barangay Labangon in Cebu City about 8 p.m. on that day.
He claimed he was driving his motorcycle with his wife as his back rider when their path was blocked by a car.
He said he was chained to his motorcycle while his wife forcibly taken by the armed men.
But the police doubted his story when they could not find any witness in the area where the incident was supposed to have happened. It was a busy intersection and it was impossible that no one could have witnessed the abduction, the police said.
Jastiva claimed his wife was abducted by a group of men belonging to a rival religious group. He, however, refused to execute affidavit to formalize his allegation. Also, no ransom demand was reported.
On Tuesday night, he claimed to have received text messages from the alleged kidnappers that said that Judith was already dead and could be found in sitio Cantipla Uno, barangay Tabunan, Cebu City.
Jastiva forwarded the message to Senior Insp. George Ylanan, chief of the CCPO’s Criminal Investigation and Detective Management (CIDM).
The initial search on Tuesday evening failed to locate the body. But on Wednesday, a resident grazing his goat found her decomposing body in a grassy slope around 30 meters from the main road.
Policemen found a few meters away a pair of black sandals, two unused condoms, an eggplant with a condom on it, a dog chain, a pair of eyeglasses and three empty energy drink bottles.
The undergarments of the woman were found near her body. She still wore a red shirt with a guitar print in front and a black skirt.
Jastiva identified the body as that of his wife due to the scars on the left knee, which he said she got from a motorcycle accident.
The police believed that Judith was killed about a week before her body was found.
Yesterday, the police conducted an ocular inspection in sitio Cantipla Uno and asked Jastiva to join them.
Jastiva came with his three children. The police team also brought Jastiva to the area where Judith’s black jacket was found and to Labangon where the alleged kidnapping happened.
At the area where the body of his wife was found, Monilar asked Jastiva to turn over to him the latter’s cellular phones.
He said he intentionally asked for the pastor’s cell phones at the site where his wife’s body was discovered to make him aware that they had doubted his accounts surrounding Judith’s disappearance.
Senior Insp. Mario Monilar, chief of CCPO’s homicide section, said Jastiva looked nervous as he turned over his phones to the police.
At the police office, Ylanan ordered PO2 Jerybelle Lerio to transcribe all messages recovered from cellular phones.
Lerio then discovered that the number used on the blue Motorola cellular phone was the same as that used by the supposed “kidnapper” because the number was the same one that showed up on Jastiva’s Nokia phone identifying himself as the kidnapper.
Also, the cellular number allegedly owned by the “kidnapper” – 09268187329 – was the same number that Jastiva gave to some reporters as his contact number.
A day before Judith’s body was found, Ylanan said they already suspected that Jastiva was the “kidnapper.”
Ylanan recalled that on Tuesday morning after Jastiva informed him about the supposed text message giving the location where his wife’s body was dumped, the pastor made some conditions before he agreed to go the site.
“I went along with his conditions so he would cooperate with us,” Ylanan said.
He said Jastiva asked that “the incident should not be reported to any police office; it would not be reported to the media; the body would be buried immediately; and no investigation was to be conducted.”
Ylanan said the conditions made him more suspicious of Jastiva.
Comendador said that based on the text messages of the alleged kidnapper, it appeared that the wife might had been involved in an extra-marital affair.
One of the text messages on Feb. 18 from the “kidnapper’s” cellular phone said, “Adto miagi Sunday may gisabotan nami wipe nimu piru midumili sya og amo nasayran may lain pud diay siay gikalambigit, di gyud siya motug-an mao nahinaykan nuon piru gibasulan naku pastor (Last Sunday, your wife and I agreed on something but she backed out and I learned that she is involved with someone else. She would not tell me who so I got carried away but I am sorry for what I had done, pastor).”
Monilar said other text messages made it appear that Judith was being “punished” and that the pastor was the aggrieved party.
Monilar said the other items recovered near the body were believed to be mere props to confuse investigators and make it look like she was gang-raped.
Supt. Nestor Sator, the medico legal officer of the PNP in Central Visayas, said he could not determine if she was raped because the body was already decomposed.
Sator said his autopsy showed that the victim’s skull was fractured, indicating that she was hit by a hard object on the right portion of her head.
Sator said the victim could have been killed there or the body was just dumped there. If she was dumped, Sator said it was possible that other persons were involved in the crime.
Before the pastor was placed under arrest, many of his supporters went to the CCPO as a show of support but they quickly disappeared after the pastor was placed under arrest.
Jastiva’s neighbors in barangay Isidro, Talisay City said they still could not believe that he masterminded his wife’s murder.
The neighbors swarmed outside the International Missionary Society (IMS) of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
The house of the controversial pastor is located at the back of their church but no one came out to face the curious onlookers and the media.
Some neighbors, however, said that if it were true that the pastor killed his wife, they would feel betrayed because they had been defending Jastiva before police investigators.
The president of IMS’ rival movement, Pastor Allan Alingalan of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement (SDARM) and his wife Arlene, could not also believe that a pastor could harm his wife.
Arlene was a close friend of Judith and they used to see each other almost every day.
Arlene said they stopped meeting when she got pregnant and found it hard to leave her house. She said the last time they saw each other was in August of last year during the wedding of the Jastivas’ 19-year-old daughter.
“We’re friends. We never had problems. We would buy each others’ stuff. She would buy my tofu, and I would buy her soap and many more,” Arlene said.
Although they do not belong on the same group, Arlene and Allan never considered the IMS as their rival group. They only realized that they were supposed to be on opposite sides when they heard reports that Leonardo tagged them as rival groups. /With a report from Marian Z. Codilla