Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, the son of renowned Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, has been jailed for life after he killed and dismembered a man on the southern Thai Island of Koh Phangan last year.
Sancho claimed that he killed the victim, Colombian plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, in self-defense.
He pleaded guilty to the murder in August 2023.
At the time, Sancho who is now 30, told Spanish news agency EFE that he had been a “hostage” to Arrieta, who he said was obsessed with him.
The case generated a huge amount of interest in Spain, with scores of Spanish reporters flying to Thailand for the trial.
Sancho was found guilty of premeditated murder, concealing a corpse, and destruction of property.
A court on the island Koh Samui, where the case was heard, initially issued a death sentence for murder, but this was commuted to life imprisonment after taking into account Sancho’s cooperation during the trial.
Sancho, a chef who has his own YouTube channel, was also ordered to pay 4 million baht ($118,000; £89,000) in damages to Arrieta’s family.
A lawyer for the victim’s family, Bussakorn Kaewleeled, expressed the satisfaction of the legal team with the outcome of the case.
“The plaintiff is satisfied with the sentence because he (Sancho) will be put in prison for life and they (the plaintiff) receive some financial compensation,” Bussakorn told reporters outside the court on the island of Koh Samui, AFP news agency reported.
Police discovered parts of Arrieta’s body at a landfill in Koh Phangan in early August last year.
Around the same time, Sancho went to the police to report that Arrieta, then 44, was missing but he later admitted to killing Arrieta upon further questioning.
Thai media reported last year that investigations had shown that Sancho had bought, among other things, a knife, rubber gloves, and a bottle of cleaning agent leading police to conclude the murder was premeditated.
Sancho later led police to seven sites around the island, where he disposed of Arrieta’s dismembered body in plastic bags.
Reports said that Sancho and Arrieta had agreed to meet after getting to know each other online.
The defence argued that Sancho acted in self-defense after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex.
Sancho said the plastic surgeon “tried to rape him”, in a statement published by Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
The convict hails from a family of actors, his mother is the actress Silvia Bronchalo, while his grandfather is the late actor Félix Ángel Sancho Gracia.
