Grisly photos of brutalized victim shown during massacre trial

Gruesome photographs of the autopsied cadaver of one of the 32 journalists slain in the Ampatuan massacre in Maguindanao were presented in court Thursday, with the prosecution underscoring the brutalities suffered by the victims allegedly at the hands of the accused. Chief Inspector Dean Cabrera, a medico-legal expert from the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory, took the witness stand and showed the gunshot wounds and lacerations sustained by 12 victims—mostly journalists—that he autopsied on November 25 at the Subere Funeral Homes in Koronadal City. Cabrera, 39, said he has already conducted around 9,000 autopsies and has testified in court more than 300 times throughout his career as a medico-legal expert. "He has also appeared before this branch, Branch 221, several times already. So I am declaring that he is an expert witness," Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes said during the trial. Cabrera, who was presented during the latter part of Thursday's hearing, only had time to elaborate on one autopsy report—that of Francisco "Ian" Subang, a reporter for the General Santos City-based Socsargen Today. Cabrera said Subang, who was among the 57 people killed on a hilly portion of Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town on November 23 last year, sustained 18 injuries on the head, torso, abdomen, and extremities. He said 12 of these injuries were gunshot wounds, six of which were considered fatal. Cabrera said when he went to the funeral homes on November 25 or two days after the massacre, he discovered that some of the bodies were already "bloated" and in an "early stage of decomposition." Cabrera handed over to the court, for evidence purposes, a number of photographs which he himself took of the victims' remains. During a break, other photographs of Subang's various wounds were shown to the media. Asked to explain what the injuries and observations meant, Cabrera said he intended to reserve the findings for the next hearing on December 8. [See: Mangudadatu's wife suffered a most painful death - witness] Thursday's proceedings was a continuation of the bail hearing for prime suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr., who along with 195 other suspects are facing 57 counts of murder before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.—KBK/JV, GMANews.TV