By Canadian Press

Thai court sentences a YouTube chef, who is the son of Spanish actors, to life for murder

Aug 28, 2024 | 11:31 PM

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand on Thursday found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that involved the victim being dismembered.

The Koh Samui Provincial Court issued an initial sentence of death for Sancho, but in its ruling commuted it to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the trial, Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, who attended the hearing, told The Associated Press.

Sancho, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, had been charged with the murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, when both were vacationing on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year.

The convicted man is the son of Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, a prominent Spanish actor, and Silvia Bronchalo, who has also been in acting. Both parents are 49 years old.

At his trial on the island of Samui, Sancho claimed he got into a fight with Arrieta for allegedly trying to sexually assault him. He said that Arrieta fell as they scuffled and hit his head on a bathtub, losing consciousness and then dying.

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Sancho acknowledged dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea.

Sahatthaya Kraikhunthot And Grant Peck, The Associated Press