On February 19, 2023, on a street near the Valle Aurelia metro station (in Rome), a body was found lying on the asphalt, in a pool of blood. It is that of Michael Lee Pon, a 50-year-old Filipino citizen: killed by several stab wounds. A fatal blow had hit him in the neck. The mystery surrounding his death did not last long: after a few hours, a 43-year-old announced his guilt in two videos that went viral within the Filipino community, and then turned himself in to the police. This is Renato Peralta, Lee Pon’s compatriot assistant chef, who today – 4 June – was sentenced by the Court of Assizes of Rome to 21 years and 1 month in prison. For him, prosecutor Silvia Sereni had asked for 22 years.
The indictment
A murder, that of Lee Pon, aggravated by some elements, said the prosecutor with a thesis now accepted by the judge: the first aggravating circumstance is that of cruelty, proven not only by the particular brutality that would have characterized the attack. But also by the fact that the victim, after being hit in the neck, was “left on the spot while she vomited blood, in terrible agony”. The second aggravating circumstance contested is that of futile motives: «The attack occurs against a lone, unarmed man, held responsible for an alleged provocation that does not exist. The issue revolves around a few tens of euros”, stated the prosecutor during her indictment.
The reconstruction of the accusation
Lee Pon’s death would in fact be the dramatic consequence of an escalation of tension caused by drug issues. The victim and his killer, in fact, would have been consumers of a powerful amphetamine typically consumed in South-East Asia, shaboo. Silvia Ronchetti, lawyer for the civil party, stated in the courtroom that Lee Pon would have started frequenting Peralta’s house precisely to smoke together. At a certain point, however, his presence is unwelcome. At that point, the 50-year-old began to demand a sum from Peralta “as reimbursement” for the last time they had taken the synthetic drug together.
The defense thesis
What is certain is that relations between the two degenerate. And we arrive at the meeting on February 19th, Lee Pon’s last night alive. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, “there is no doubt that the man showed up on the scene without any intention of getting into a fight”. Peralta’s defense, which has already announced the appeal, however objected that “it was Lee Pon who was looking for Peralta, not the other way around.” And he invoked self-defense, claiming that the 43-year-old “had no intention of killing a person. He was forced by necessity, and the sequence of events proves it. He had a young son, how could he decide to ruin his life.” The son in question, 16 years old at the time of the events, was present on site at the time of the attack. The juvenile prosecutor’s office charged him with the crime of complicity in murder.
