Why did Daniel Sancho murder Edwin Arrieta in Thailand? Will he face the death penalty?
A captain of the Thai police said that Daniel Sancho murdered Edwin Arrieta because the YouTube chef was intending to marry someone else from Indonesia.
Spanish YouTube chef Daniel Sancho is in pre-trial detention in Koh Samui prison after confessing to having murdered and dismembered Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta in Thailand.
The confession follows media reports of the discovery of human body parts around the island of Koh Phangan, a famous party hub in the southeast Asian country.
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Why did Daniel Sancho murder Edwin Arrieta in Thailand?
Thai police captain Sucheep Chadakarn told NBC News that Daniel, son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, killed the doctor because he was ending his relationship with the Colombian to marry someone else in Indonesia.
“Sancho told investigators that he had a fight with Arrieta last Wednesday after he asked him to break up because he was going to marry someone else,” said Chadakarn.
“He said that if the conversation didn’t go well, he thought he was going to have to kill him because he had a partner waiting for him to get married,” said the police captain, clarifying the motive for the crime.
According to Chadakarn, Sancho told them that Arrieta had threatened to cause trouble so Sancho punched him, after which the doctor bit his hand, which in turn caused the chef to hit his head over and over until he died.
The 29-year-old confessed on Saturday to chopping up the doctor’s body into 15 pieces. He brought the authorities to the places where he had disposed of the body parts. Sancho had thrown some of them into the sea, and others into garbage dumps.
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Will Daniel Sancho face the death penalty?
The circumstances of Sancho’s crime, such as his dismemberment of the body and his attempt to conceal the body parts, as well as his cooperation in the police investigation, will play a role in determining what sentence he will receive if he is convicted. These factors could mitigate or aggravate the punishment that he will receive.
Those found guilty of murder in Thailand face the possibility of being handed the death penalty. However, murderers may also be given a life sentence, or up to 20 years imprisonment.