Joel Escorial, the confessed gunman in the murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid, was sentenced on Monday to a prison term of eight years and eight months to a maximum of 16 years.

Lapid’s brother, Roy Mabasa, also a journalist, said Judge Cesar Huliganga of Branch 254 of the Las Piñas Regional Trial Court found Escorial guilty “as an accomplice to the murder.”

“Escorial will remain in the PNP (Philippine National Police) custodial center until the trial of Christoper Bacoto, another alleged accomplice, concludes,” Mabasa said in a post.

The judge ordered the lawyer of Ricardo Zulueta, another suspect in the killing, to request an autopsy of his client’s remains, as doubts had been raised about Zulueta’s death in Bataan.

A former security officer of the Bureau of Corrections, Zulueta was said to have died of heart failure in March. He was named, along with former BuCor chief Gerald Bantag, as a mastermind in Lapid’s killing.

Zulueta and Bantag were also tagged in the 18 October 2022 death of Cristito Villamor Palaña, an inmate at the New Bilibid Prison who was also allegedly involved in Lapid’s death.

“The preliminary investigation established that the murders of Lapid and Villamor were attended by a conspiracy between and among the respective respondents,” read a Department of Justice (DoJ) resolution.

“The plan of the respondents to kill them both, including its execution, was shown by the evidence for the complainants. The prosecution notes that the death of Villamor was intertwined with the death of Percival and that the death of the former was used to cover up the death of the latter,” the DoJ said.

In August last year, Escorial asked the court for a lower penalty in exchange for admitting his guilt. He had asked that his case be downgraded from murder to homicide.