Guen Aguilar
A Filipina maid has been convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the killing of a fellow domestic worker whose head and limbs were found in a Singapore shopping centre.
Guen Aguilar, 30, escaped the death penalty for killing and chopping up 27-year-old compatriot Jane La Puebla when her murder charge was reduced due to her mental state.
Sentencing is set for May 29. Aguilar faces possible life imprisonment or a jail term of up to 10 years. Defense lawyer Shashi Nathan has argued for a sentence of less than 10 years, citing Aguilar’s mental state at the time of the killing and her remor
Jane La Puebla
se shown during the seven months she has been in prison.
"She knows that what she did was wrong and that there is no excuse for her misdeeds. However, she is genuinely remorseful for what she has done," Nathan told the court.
He said her two sons in the Philippines are still unaware their mother is in prison and think she is still working as a maid. Her husband Edwin and sister Joy were in the court.
Aguilar was arrested after the severed head and limbs of La Puebla were found in a sports bag in the upmarket Orchard Road area on September 9.
The victim’s torso was later discovered at a nature park.
The court heard how the two had an argument in Aguilar’s room at her employers’ flat over S$2,000 (C$1,400) she had lent the victim, part of which was borrowed from a loan shark.
It escalated into a fight during which Aguilar smothered La Puebla’s face with a cushion until she became unconscious, then strangled her and placed the body inside a luggage bag.
Two days later, on September 9, she bought gloves, a chopper and an axe, cut the body into pieces and made two separate trips on a taxi to dispose of them. Her employers were out when the crime took place.
