Opinion ID: 3010594
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Prior Conviction in the Philippines

Text: On December 8, 1991, Kole, four other females, and a male named Lazarus Iwuchukwu (Ike) were arrested in an apartment in a city in the Philippines. Ike was Kole's fiance. Kole and Ike lived in the apartment, but all six were charged with conspiracy to prepare, package and repackage heroin in violation of Philippine law. Police made the arrest after a drug courier named Jamie Williams lead them to Kole's apartment. Williams had been arrested in Manila as she was boarding a flight bound for Chicago with a falsebottomed suitcase containing approximately five kilograms of heroin. When police and Williams arrived at the condominium complex where Kole and Ike lived, the owner of the complex consented to a search and police entered Kole's apartment along with Williams. Once inside, the police discovered a blue suitcase containing heroin. Kole and Ike were captured after they tried to escape by jumping from a second story terrace. Several women who were present in the apartment 2 were also arrested and all were charged with violating Philippine law. The defendants, who were represented by the same attorney, entered pleas of not guilty and proceeded to trial before a judge in accordance with Philippine law. At that trial the police testified that the women who were arrested with Kole were all squatting around a suitcase and filling it with heroin when police entered. Kole testified in her own behalf. She stated that she and Ike had been awakened by a loud noise coming from the living room. According to Kole, Ike had peered from behind the door of the bedroom to find out what was going on when he saw a man with a gun who Ike claimed was trying to kill them. Kole testified that she and Ike attempted to escape by jumping from the second-floor terrace, but they were apprehended and placed under arrest. She insisted that she had never seen Williams before, and that the suitcase with the heroin had never been in her possession. The defendants also offered testimony that police had told them that they had to pay a bribe of $100,000 or the police would have Williams testify that the heroin was found in Kole and Ike's apartment. Despite the defense testimony, Judge Felix of the Regional Trial Court of the Philippines found both Ike and Kole guilty as charged though he acquitted everyone else.