A Thai court sentenced a famous Son of a Spanish actor for life on Thursday for the gruesome murder of a Colombian plastic surgeon on a tropical holiday island in a case that has Spain in its grip.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the tourist island of Koh Phangan last August.
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The case has attracted enormous interest in Spain because the defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a well-known actor and numerous Spanish reporters flew in for the trial.
Sancho’s mother, Silvia Bronchalo, was also an actress and both parents were present at the sentencing, The Associated Press reported, adding that both were 49 years old.
Bussakorn Kaewleeled, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said family members were satisfied with the outcome.
“The plaintiff is satisfied with the verdict as he will be sentenced to life in prison and will receive financial compensation,” Bussakorn told reporters outside the court on the island of Koh Samui.
“The verdict has been announced and both sides have the right to appeal under Thai law,” Bussakorn added.
When asked about Sancho’s reaction, she said: “He is sad, but we cannot forget the loss of the dead man.”
The court had initially sentenced Sancho to death but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the trial, AP reported, citing Police Colonel Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani provincial police, who attended the hearing.
LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP via Getty Images
Glaring details of Arrieta’s death
Sancho claimed he killed 44-year-old Arrieta in self-defense and admitted hiding the body, but denied destroying the Colombian’s passport.
During the trial, witnesses testified that Sancho dismembered Arrieta’s body and packed the body parts in plastic bags and distributed them on Koh Phangan.
Sancho led police to seven locations where he allegedly disposed of the victim’s dismembered body in plastic bags, CBS News affiliate BBC News reported.
Although Thailand still has the death penalty for some crimes, including premeditated murder, executions are rare—the last one took place in 2018.
Before the verdict was announced, Arrieta’s family said they were in favor of a life sentence.
“Leave him in Thailand so he can take time – all the time God gives him to live – to reflect on his actions,” said Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, in an HBO documentary about the case.
“He didn’t just dismember my brother, he dismembered an entire family.”
Photo by JOSE PERDOMO / AFP via Getty Images
Controversial versions of events
Sancho and Arrieta agreed to meet in person after meeting online.
Sancho’s father said in the same HBO documentary that Arrieta threatened his son and then “there was a fight, and in that fight there was an accident.”
The defense argued that Sancho acted in legitimate self-defense after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex.
“He tried to rape me and we fought,” Sancho said in a statement quoted by Spanish daily El Mundo.
Sancho testified that Arrieta fell during the fight, hit his head on a bathtub, lost consciousness and died, AP reported.
Another lawyer for the victim’s family, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, said in a recent interview with El Mundo that Sancho lives in a “false reality”.
Ospina said the trial in April proved that Sancho had bought knives, plastic bags and cleaning products before the crime and kept them in the room where the murder took place.
According to IMDB, Rodolfo Sancho has made dozens of film and television appearances and played the lead role in “El Ministerio del Tiempo” (“The Ministry of Time”).
