Thai court sentences Spanish YouTube chef to life imprisonment for murder | Crime News

Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, son of a Spanish actor, was convicted of the murder and dismemberment of a Colombian plastic surgeon.

A court in Thailand has sentenced a Spanish chef to life imprisonment for murdering and dismembering a Colombian man on the tourist island of Koh Phangan.

On Thursday, the Koh Samui Provincial Court found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, guilty of murdering Colombian plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta Arteaga and dismembering and hiding his body.

The murder occurred in August 2023, when Sancho and Arrieta were on vacation on Koh Phangan. The two had arranged to meet online. During the trial, it was revealed that Sancho dismembered the body of 44-year-old Arrieta, put the body parts in plastic bags and then distributed them around the island.

Sancho, who comes from a famous Spanish acting family, denied premeditated murder but admitted dismembering the victim's body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea.

The defense argued that Sancho acted in self-defense after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex. Sancho then fell, hit his head on a bathtub, lost consciousness and died.

The case came to light when garbage collectors found a sawed-off pelvis and intestines weighing about 5 kilograms in a fertilizer bag, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported.

Shortly afterwards, Sancho reported Arrieta missing to the police. Thai police then collected evidence linking the two men and arrested and interrogated the cook.

Police obtained surveillance video showing Sancho allegedly buying a knife, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning supplies at a supermarket before Arrieta's death, which prosecutors said bolstered the premeditated murder charge.

Famous family

The case has attracted enormous interest in Spain because the defendant's father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a well-known actor and dozens of Spanish reporters were flown in for the trial.

The court initially sentenced Sancho to death, but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment based on his account of events during cross-examination and ordered him to pay 4.4 million baht (about $130,000) to Arrieta's family.

Bussakorn Kaewleeled, a lawyer for the victim's family, said they were “satisfied with the verdict because he will go to prison for life and they will receive financial compensation.”

Carmen Balfagon, a lawyer for the Sancho family, said: “We did not expect [the life sentence]but we must accept and respect the decision of the Thai judiciary.”

In his closing statement, Sancho told the court that he regretted his actions. “I am sorry that a life was lost and that parents lost a son,” Sancho was quoted as saying by the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

Under certain conditions, under an agreement between Thailand and Spain, Sancho can apply for his repatriation to serve the remainder of his sentence in his home country after serving several years in prison in Thailand.