YouTube chef Daniel Sancho sentenced to life in prison in Thailand for murder
A court found him guilty of killing and dismembering the Colombian plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta last year, after both met at a rave party on the holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan
A Thai court has sentenced the Spanish citizen Daniel Sancho to life in prison over the murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, whose remains were found at the beginning of August 2023 on the holiday island of of Koh Pha-ngan. Both men had been spending a few days on the island coinciding with the Full Moon festival, which attracts travelers from around the world for all-night raves. Sancho is known as a YouTube chef and he is the son of Spanish actors Rodolfo Sancho and Silvia Bronchalo, both of whom were present at the court hearing in Bangkok on Thursday.
The court found Sancho, 30, guilty of premeditated murder, of concealing or damaging a body, and of destroying another person’s documents (the victim’s passport). Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, told the Associated Press that the court initially handed down a death sentence, but commuted it to life imprisonment due to Sancho’s cooperation during the trial.
Sancho has also been told to pay around €106,000 (4 million bat) to the victim’s relatives, who were financially dependent on the 44-year-old plastic surgeon. The court decision may still be appealed in a process that could take up to a year, according to legal sources. “Time to keep fighting,” said Rodolfo Sancho, Daniel’s father, as he walked out of the Koh Samui Provincial Court.
Following his arrest, Sancho initially confessed to the crime, but later changed his version of events and held that Arrieta had accidentally hit his head against a bathtub as he fell following a scuffle between the two men. Sancho claimed that Arrieta had tried to sexually assault him.
Sancho had pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, but acknowledged dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea. The case came to light when trash collectors found what the Bangkok Post newspaper described as a sawed-off pelvis and intestines weighing about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in a fertilizer sack at a garbage dump.
Shortly after that, Sancho reported to police that Arrieta was missing, and police then gathered evidence linking the two men that led them to detain and interrogate him.
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