The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Tuesday, June 8, 2010 

O ne of the two accused in the murder of a Filipino housekeeper twice glanced at the mother of their victim, hoping perhaps to see how she's coping with the pain and misery of her child's death. Prosecutors briefly showed her dead body as the Crown attorney tried to convince the jury that the two immigrants from Ecuador killed her. "Like drowning men, they reach for the life jacket. And neither men deserve it," he declared. The murder case is now up to the jury for decision.

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SLAYING OF FILIPINO HOUSEKEEPER JOCELYN DULNUAN

Prosecutor Asks Jury: Convict Two Men of Murder

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)

and Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA)

T ORONTO -  Prosecutors asked a jury on Tuesday (June 8, 2010) to convict two Ecuadorian immigrants of first-degree murder for the slaying of a Filipino housekeeper in a Toronto, Canada, suburb in October 2007.

Crown attorney Steve Sherriff spelled out the reasons why Cristian Figueroa and Fabian Loayza-Penaloza should be declared guilty of killing Jocelyn Dulnuan, a 27-year-old native of Ifugao, who worked as caretaker in a stately-mansion in a Mississauga neighborhood.

Dulnuan's mother, sister and two other relatives gasped and bowed as Sherriff listed the evidence splashed on closed circuit television, including the copper wire that had been used to strangle her.

At one point court aides had to delay the entry of the mother and sister into the courtroom until after the portion showing the picture of Dulnuan's upper torso had been displayed for the jury and the public.

Figueroa glanced twice at Dulnuan's mother who walked straight ahead to her seat, accompanied by aides who made sure reporters are kept at bay. His co-accused, Loayza-Penaloza stared glumly at the video presentation.

"They killed Jocelyn by helping each other," Sherriff told the jury. "Like drowning men, they reach for the life jacket. And neither men deserve it," he declared.

Figueroa and Loayza-Penaloza had pointed to the other as the one who slew Dulnuan.

"We say to you," Sherriff said, addressing the jury, "that the lure of big, easy money ($500,000) waiting for them, blinded these two men . . . and Jocelyn was an obstacle."

Victim Was Killed Because She Knew One of the Assailants

P olice had earlier recovered the safe that had been ripped off from the mansion and a Rolex watch, part of the cache that Figueroa and Loayza-Penaloza stole.

Sherriff told the jury the two men had "very powerful incentive" to kill Dulnuan, which he said was done late in the robbery, apparently because she recognized one of the assailants – Loayza-Penaloza – from his earlier contractual work at the mansion.

"Why is this a first-degree murder?" the prosecutor posed. "Because we have proven (it) beyond reasonable doubt," then laying down the salient points of his evidence, explaining motives and what they stood to gain.

After Sherriff had finished his final statements to the jury, Justice John Sproat began to explain what the jury needs to do in arriving at a decision, either to convict or acquit them.

"Deciding facts is your job, not mine. Your duty is to apply the law," he explained.

Sproat said each of the accused must be given separate verdicts although Figueroa and Loayza-Penaloza were charged in one indictment. # # #