A Superior Court judge rejected yesterday a plea bargain agreement in a murder case after the accused refused to enter a guilty plea.<\/p>\n
Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama suggested that the accused, Berlin Sedurante, 39, appeared less contrite to merit a change of the second-degree murder charge to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a Filipino construction worker.<\/p>\n
“I just want to know why you’ll have me punished when I did not commit any crime,” Sedurante told the judge in questioning.<\/p>\n
The judge said: “How can he have remorse if he is saying he is not guilty?” Sedurante previously had agreed to reverse to a guilty plea, which formed the basis for the plea bargain.<\/p>\n
Sedurante, of the Philippines, stood accused for murder in the death of another Filipino last year in a scuffle inside a mini-bus.<\/p>\n
Police said he was drunk when he hit the victim following an argument over his insistence to take the space where the victim sat on.<\/p>\n
The victim had not recovered after dropping unconscious from the slapping he received.<\/p>\n
The victim was taken to the hospital, but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.<\/p>\n
Doctors declared heart attack as the cause of death.<\/p>\n
Sedurante acknowledged that he had finished about 10 cans of beer but that he did not slap the victim.<\/p>\n
“I did not hurt anybody. Heart attack caused his death,” he told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
John Chambers, Sedurante’s court-appointed lawyer, said: “The plea agreement was not acceptable to the court because of some hesitation on the part of my client.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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