A couple sentenced to life imprisonment by a Muntinlupa court for selling high-grade marijuana or kush will now have to run to the Supreme Court to contest that judgment recently affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
The CA Special Fourth Division denied for lack of merit the appeal filed by Joshua Ramon Jimenez, 38, and his 28-year-old partner Sarah Dominguez.
The two were found by the lower court to have sold the drugs inside their home at the Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City.
In a 39-page decision dated 3 October only made available to media yesterday, the CA backed the February 2020 decision of Branch 276 of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court which also fined the coupled P5 million.
Jimenez and Dominguez fell in a drug sting conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency inside the posh village on 30 September 2018.
The accused argued that the prosecution should have first proven that there were investigations being undertaken prior to the drug buy-bust operation.
“As regards the alleged inconsistency as to whether a prior surveillance was conducted prior to the buy-bust operation, it should be pointed out that the same is inconsequential and irrelevant to the elements of the offenses charged,” the CA said.
It, likewise, dismissed the couple’s claim that the marked money used in the operation should have been presented as evidence by the prosecution.
The six kilos of kush seized from the couple had a street value of P7.2 million.