Daniel Sancho Bronchalo sentenced to life imprisonment for murder

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

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

The verdict was handed down by the Koh Samui Provincial 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 vacationing on Koh Panang, a nearby island known for its full moon rave parties.

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

Sancho claimed he and Arrieta got into an argument after Arrieta tried to sexually assault him. Sancho said Arrieta 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 on land and in the sea. He received a four-month prison sentence, which was reduced to two months. In addition, he received a two-year prison sentence for destroying Arrieta's passport, a charge he denied.

The Associated Press reported that Thai police obtained surveillance video that allegedly showed Sancho buying a knife, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning supplies at a supermarket before Arrieta's death. Prosecutors said this supported the charge of premeditated murder.

“I am sorry that a life was lost and that parents lost a son,” Sancho said in his closing statement in court, according to the Spanish-language newspaper El Pais. “I am sorry that his family could not give him a dignified burial. I am sorry for what I did after he died.”

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