A court in Thailand has found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that involved the victim being dismembered.
The Koh Samui Provincial Court issued an initial sentence of death for Sancho but commuted it to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the trial, Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, who attended the hearing, told The Associated Press.
The 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, had been charged with the murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, when both were vacationing on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year.
The murder took place in August 2023 while Sancho and Arrieta were holidaying on Koh Phangan, the pair having agreed to meet online. The trial heard that Sancho chopped up 44-year-old Arrieta’s body and put the parts in plastic bags before distributing them around the island.
Sancho, who is from a famous Spanish acting family, denied premeditated murder, but acknowledged dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea.
The defence argued that Sancho acted in legitimate self-defence after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex, the latter falling and hitting his head on a bathtub, losing consciousness and then dying.
The case came to light when rubbish collectors found what the Bangkok Post newspaper described as a sawn-off pelvis and intestines weighing about 5kg (11 pounds) in a fertiliser sack.
Shortly after that, Sancho reported to police that Arrieta was missing. Thai police then gathered evidence linking the two men, detaining and interrogating the chef.
Police obtained surveillance video showing Sancho allegedly purchasing a knife, rubber gloves, rubbish bags and cleaning solutions at a convenience store before Arrieta’s death, which prosecutors claimed bolstered the charge of premeditated murder.
Famous family
The case has generated enormous interest in Spain because the defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a renowned actor and dozens of Spanish reporters had flown in for the trial.
The court initially sentenced Sancho to death but commuted the punishment to life imprisonment due to the account he gave of the events during cross-examination, ordering him to pay 4.4 million baht (about $130,000) to Arrieta’s family.
Bussakorn Kaewleeled, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said they were “satisfied with the sentence because he will be put in prison for life and they will receive some financial compensation”.
Carmen Balfagon, a lawyer representing the Sancho family, said: “We didn’t expect it [the life sentence], but we must accept what Thai justice has said, we have to respect it.”
In his closing statement, Sancho told the court he regretted his actions. “I am sorry that a life has been lost and that parents have lost a son,” Sancho was quoted as saying by the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Under certain conditions, Sancho can apply to be repatriated to serve the remainder of his prison term back home after several years of imprisonment in Thailand, according to a treaty between Thailand and Spain.
