BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court on Thursday found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison. The victim was also dismembered as part of the sensational proceedings.
The Koh Samui provincial court had initially imposed the death penalty on Sancho, but commuted it to life imprisonment because of his cooperation during the trial, Police Colonel Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani provincial police, who attended the hearing, told the Associated Press.
Sancho, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, was accused of murdering Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, while both were vacationing on the Thai resort island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year.
The island is famous for its monthly “full moon” beach parties, which attract travelers from all over the world to the nightly raves.
The convicted man is the son of Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, a well-known Spanish actor, and Silvia Bronchalo, who was also an actress. Both parents are 49 years old and attended the court hearing on Thursday.
At his trial on the island of Samui, Sancho claimed he got into an argument with Arrieta because he allegedly tried to sexually assault him. He said that during the scuffle, Arrieta fell and hit his head on a bathtub, lost consciousness and then died.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of premeditated murder.
Sancho admitted to dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea. He received a four-month prison sentence for the charge of concealing or damaging a corpse, which was reduced to two months due to the confession, Paisan said.
He had also pleaded not guilty to the destruction of someone else’s documents – the victim’s passport – and was sentenced to two years in prison for this.
The details of the case – a violent death on a holiday island, the celebrity connections and the lurid details – attracted widespread attention in the Spanish media, and HBO produced a Spanish-language documentary about the events.
The case came to light when garbage collectors found a sawed-off pelvis and intestines weighing about five kilograms in a fertilizer bag at a garbage dump, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported.
Shortly thereafter, Sancho reported Arrieta missing to police. Police then gathered evidence that linked the two men and led to their arrest and questioning of him.
The police constructed a story by telling the press that Sancho confessed to the murder and said he planned it because Arrieta had threatened to embarrass him and his family by revealing their alleged sexual relationship.
Sancho, through his father and his lawyers, said this was a distorted version of his statements to the police and denied having had a sexual relationship with Arrieta.
Police obtained surveillance video showing Sancho allegedly buying a knife, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning supplies at a supermarket before Arrieta’s death, which prosecutors said bolstered the premeditated murder charge.
In his closing argument at the start of the trial, Sancho told the court that he regretted his actions, Spanish newspaper El País reported.
“I’m sorry that a life was lost and that parents lost a son,” Sancho said. “I’m sorry that his family couldn’t give him a dignified burial. I’m sorry for what I did after he died.”
