"Crawling Hand" Star Up On MURDER Charges
 

This is one of my favorite B-Horror Movies and I just saw this story at the Sacramento Bee website. I checked with pals in Phillipines, Thailand, Japan and they say they're all aware of it.
This story is so fucking huge overseas it's ridiculous! Check out how the original suspect had a career in espionage. Like anybody is gonna believe this fucker??? So we have to ship a citizen of the U.S. back to the Phillipines because their cops got the wrong man, the wrong way? NO FUCKING WAY JOSE.


Philippines wants suspect back

A Tracy man accused of killing his common-law wife, a famed actress, fights extradition.

By Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Saturday, October 18, 2003Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.

A Sacramento federal judge is trying to unravel the murky circumstances of a confession critical to the case against a Tracy man in the murder of his wife, famous Filipina film actress Nida Blanca.At the heart of the Philippine government's request that the United States extradite Roger Lawrence Strunk is a recanted confession by Pedro Philip Medel Jr. that implicated Strunk as the instigator of Blanca's violent death in the early morning of Nov. 7, 2001.




The case has gripped the island nation of 80 million people and made headlines throughout Asia ever since.

Medel confessed less than two weeks after Blanca's body was found with multiple stab wounds in the back seat of her car parked in a Manila garage. He recanted five days later in a dramatic outburst during a courtroom appearance, flailing his arms and shrieking that the confession was obtained by torture. He claimed not to know Strunk and said he did not want to help persecute an innocent man.

A shadowy figure with a criminal record who once served as a Philippine intelligence operative, Medel is now on trial in Blanca's death. He said in the written confession that Strunk was at the scene and directed him to kill Strunk's common-law wife of 22 years, a 65-year-old cultural icon beloved in her country.

Strunk, 63, had an obscure American singing and acting career before moving to the Philippines.

Philippine authorities backed off of charging Strunk in the face of the recantation, and he left the country in January 2002, to visit his ailing mother in Tracy, who later died of leukemia. When asked to return to the Philippines in connection with the investigation, he refused. He was charged with the brutal murder in February and has been in custody since his arrest on May 13 at his sister's house in Tracy.

At an extradition hearing Friday in Sacramento before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows, defense lawyer Jeffrey Kravitz argued that Medel's repudiation of the confession, along with the suspect nature of subsequently produced statements by others, "obliterates" the case against his client.

With Strunk and Blanca family members and reporters in the courtroom, Kravitz lambasted the Philippine government and the evidence it submitted in support of extradition.

He said incriminating statements alleged to have been made by Medel in private conversations, Medel's confession and statements given by Medel associate Leonilo Gonzaga -- including one given in June to bolster the case -- all contradict one another.

Gonzaga was once introduced to his client as "a hired assassin," the defense lawyer added.

Recent statements produced by Philippine authorities "were created solely for the purpose of manufacturing evidence for this hearing," Kravitz said.

"This case has been created out of whole cloth by Philippine authorities almost two years after-the-fact," he told Hollows. "I'm telling you honestly, he's being framed for this crime."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Melikian was caught off guard when Kravitz submitted to the court a stack of documents that he said discredits the extradition request.

The prosecutor said it was the first time he had seen the material and would have to review it before attempting a reply.

Melikian said Kravitz "ambushed me with his grandstanding in the courtroom," eliminating any opportunity to immediately respond.

Kravitz and Alma Fernandez-Mallonga, one of three Manila attorneys who attended the hearing on behalf of Strunk, assured Hollows that all of the documents offered by them Friday have long been in the hands of Philippine prosecutors.

They were not part of the package he received, Melikian said.

Melikian has until Nov. 3 to file a brief replying to -- and possibly challenging -- the documents. At that time, the magistrate judge will consider the evidence and eventually issue a written decision on whether to extradite Strunk.

Hollows pointedly asked Melikian if he has information to rebut evidence that the Philippine government paid up to 30,000 pesos (566 American dollars) to Medel's family around the time of his confession. The prosecutor said he does not have any such information.

"Does that bother you?" Hollows asked.

"Somewhat," Melikian replied, and added that he wants to look further into the matter.

The magistrate judge is also troubled by evidence that Medel admitted the killing to Gonzaga and Gen. Galileo Kintanar, former military intelligence chief in the Philippines, yet did not turn up in police custody until several days later.

"It was like, 'Take a week off Mr. Medel, and then you can surrender,' " Hollows observed.

Blanca has been described as the Katharine Hepburn of the Philippines because her acting ability ranged from comedy to drama. Filipinos were stunned by her death, and 20,000 people flocked to the wake. Ousted President Joseph Estrada, being held for trial on charges of plundering the national treasury, was furloughed to attend.

In courtroom remarks Friday, Kravitz compared the case's sustained sensation in the Philippines to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson in this country.

About the Writer
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The Bee's Denny Walsh can be reached at (916) 321-1189 or [email protected].