Thai court sentences YouTube chef Daniel Sancho Bronchalo to life imprisonment

A court in Thailand on Thursday found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison. The victim was also dismembered as part of the sensational proceedings.

The Koh Samui provincial court had initially imposed the death penalty on Sancho, but commuted it to life imprisonment because of his cooperation during the trial, Police Colonel Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani provincial police, who attended the hearing, told the Associated Press.

Sancho, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, was accused of murdering Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, while both were vacationing on the Thai resort island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year.

The convicted man is the son of Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, a well-known Spanish actor, and Silvia Bronchalo, who was also an actress. Both parents are 49 years old and attended the court hearing on Thursday.

During his trial on the island of Samui, Sancho claimed that he had argued with Arrieta because she had allegedly sexually abused him.

He said Arrieta fell during the scuffle and hit his head on a bathtub, lost consciousness and died.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of premeditated murder.

Sancho admitted to dismembering the victim's body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea.

He was sentenced to four months in prison on charges of concealing or damaging a corpse, which was reduced to two months after he confessed to the crime, Paisan said.

He had also pleaded not guilty to the destruction of someone else's documents – the victim's passport – and was sentenced to two years in prison for this.

The circumstances of the case – a violent death on a holiday island, the celebrity connections and the lurid details – attracted enormous attention in the Spanish media.

HBO produced a Spanish-language documentary about the events.