Olongapo (CNN Philippines) — The defense panel in the Jennifer Laude murder case presented on Monday (August 17) Lisa Pemberton, the mother of the accused, Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, as its first witness in the trial.
Mrs. Pemberton became emotional in court as she described her son as a good boy who could not have killed in cold blood.
She said she couldn’t believe and still found it impossible that her son was being tried for killing someone.
She insisted her son was not a killer.
She even brought with her 22 letters, mostly from relatives and friends, saying good things about her son, Joseph Scott.
However, during the cross-examination, she admitted that she didn’t have personal knowledge of what happened because she wasn’t in the country when the crime allegedly happened.
Jennifer Laude, a 26-year-old transgender woman, was found dead in a motel in Olongapo City on October 11, 2014. Laude met Pemberton, a U.S. marine, in a bar supposedly earlier that night.
Jennifer’s mother, Julita, heard Lisa’s testimony.
As a mother, Julita said she sympathized with Lisa, but at the end of the day, she was the one grieving over her dead child.
Pemberton’s lawyer, Rowena Garcia-Flores, said Lisa would leave the country Tuesday (August 18).
She was able to visit her son who is being held at Camp Aguinaldo.
The defense will present its next witness next week.
