Daniel Sancho Bronchalo sentenced to life in prison, guilty of murder

Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a Spanish YouTube chef, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for a gruesome murder and mutilation in Thailand.

The case was documented in a Spanish-language HBO documentary. Sancho is the son of prominent Spanish film and television actor Rodolfo Sancho and Silvia Bronchalo, who has crew credits and has reportedly acted as well.

The verdict was handed down in the Koh Samui District Court in a case in which Sancho was accused of murdering Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, dismembering his body and disposing of the body parts. The two men were on holiday on Koh Panang, a nearby island known for its full-moon rave parties.

The court initially sentenced Sancho to death for the “premeditated murder” of Arrieta, but reduced the sentence to life in prison because he had cooperated with the court.

Sancho claimed that he and Arrieta had gotten into an argument after Arrieta tried to sexually assault him. Sancho said that Arrieta had hit his head on a bathtub and died.

While Sancho pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, he admitted to dismembering Arrieta’s body and scattering the body parts across land and sea. He was given a four-month prison sentence, reduced to two months. He was also given a two-year sentence for destroying Arrieta’s passport, a charge he denied.

The Associated Press reports that Thai police obtained surveillance footage that allegedly showed Sancho buying a knife, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning supplies from a convenience store before Arrieta’s death. Prosecutors said this supported the charge of premeditated murder.

“I am sorry that a life has been lost and that parents have lost a son,” Sancho said in his closing remarks to the court, according to the Spanish-language newspaper El Pais. “I am sorry that his family could not bury him properly. I am sorry for what I did after his death.”

Both parents were in court on Thursday to hear the verdict.