San Pedro Resident Alvaro Tun Acquitted in Murder Trial

San Pedro resident, 34-year-old Alvaro Tun is a free man tonight after he was found not guilty of murder in the High Court today. Tun was charged with the stabbing death of Elder Arana, which occurred at Jeemar’s Night Club on March 5, 2023. The fatal incident occurred around 1:40 a.m. after the bar unexpectedly closed early, triggering a disturbance among patrons. Arana was stabbed six times during the ensuing brawl. While police recovered a box cutter belonging to the club’s official security guard, Tun was the one arrested and charged with the murder, based on the account of a single alleged eyewitness. That witness, Diego Santos, became the focus of the trial. However, Justice Derick Sylvester discredited Santos’s testimony, ruling him not credible. The judge cited numerous inconsistencies and discrepancies in Santos’s account, including conflicting statements about his location during the incident. Justice Sylvester stated that Santos could not have witnessed the stabbing from his claimed vantage point. In a 30-page ruling, Justice Sylvester emphasized the prosecution’s failure to prove three key elements of murder: that Tun inflicted the injuries, that Tun’s actions were unlawful, and that Tun caused Arana’s death. Tun’s attorney, Linden Jones explained the court’s position on the evidence, while Tun himself offered condolences to Arana’s family.

The trial, which began on January 13, 2025, saw the prosecution call 14 witnesses, seven of whom testified in person, while the statements of the other seven were read into the record./