Gilberto Ventura Ceballos, known as "the escapee," because he escaped from prison three times—twice from maximum security—was a Dominican serial killer who killed five young people in Panama between 2010 and 2011.
Born on July 6, 1975, in Santo Domingo, Ventura Ceballos was first arrested in his country of origin for kidnapping a Dominican merchant of Asian origin, as well as for other cases of fraud and scams, sources close to the case told the Argentine News Agency.
This killer was in the Najayo prison in 2004, in the province of San Cristóbal, but after a few weeks, he managed to escape to Panama on a tourist visa and another fake one. Regarding his escape, the Dominican authorities never issued a press release to explain the circumstances of that escape.
Between 2010 and 2011, with the help of Alcibiades Méndez, Ventura Ceballos kidnapped and murdered five teenagers in La Chorrera. They were: Yessenia Argelis Loo Kam, Yong Jian Wu, Samy Zeng Chen, Joel Maurio Liu Wong, and Georgina del Carmen Lee Chen.
The homicides caused a great impact in the city, and the Police went to the scene of the facts until they found the bodies of the deceased under a residence in the El Trapichito sector of the city. The criminal escaped again and returned to the Dominican Republic, but finally, the officers arrested him and extradited him to Panama in 2011, where he was remanded in custody.
However, on December 28, 2016, with the help of several accomplices, he managed to escape from the La Joyita Penitentiary Center, located on the outskirts of the Panamanian capital. Ventura Ceballos was hidden for about a year, where he was finally arrested by the Police in Jacó, Costa Rica, on September 22, 2017. The subject had arrived in Costa Rica with false documents, under the name of Carlos Alberto Aguirre Valencia.
When describing the itinerary made by the murderer, it was established that Ventura Ceballos arrived in the capital through the Marcos A. Gelabert Airport with handcuffs on his hands and feet, and was quickly placed in a maximum security prison at the headquarters of the National Police.
On September 27, 2017, he was charged with prison escape and conspiracy to commit a crime, and his trial was supposed to begin on October 26, but the Judicial Branch postponed it to November 23. The accused's lawyer, Rogelio Cruz, filed a habeas corpus motion before the Judicial Branch of Panama, arguing that the pretrial detention his client had received was illegal, and added that he had been vilified by the media. This motion was criticized by Cristóbal Fu, the legal representative of the victims' families, who pointed out that the motion was probably filed to stop the process.
The defense team presented a three-month postponement request to the Prosecutor's Office, which was denied due to its complexity. Lawyer Cruz claimed he needed time to analyze the 500-page file, as he had not been able to access it properly.
Before Ventura Ceballos's arrival at the court, the victims' families presented their complaints about the constant delays of the procedure by the defense. When the accused arrived, he tried to assume his own defense, a move denied by the court, and then he himself declared himself innocent of the murder charges.
On November 29, a second hearing was suspended, as one of the defense lawyers representing one of the other accused parties was missing. On December 4, the prosecutor for Organized Crime, Miguel Tuñón, requested a four-month extension to investigate all suspects involved in the case due to its large size. The request was accepted by the judge, Francisco Carpintero.
On June 22, 2018, the murderer was found guilty of all charges, and both he and his accomplice were given 50 years in prison for killing the young people. The same sentence was also given to Keyla Gisselle Bendibú Salazar and Mario Luis Vega, who had acted as secondary accomplices in three of the murders. A 15-year sentence was given to Bendibú Salazar and Roberto Antonio Mariscal for being accomplices to homicide, but they were acquitted of the kidnapping charges.
Along with all this, all of them would be passed to the availability of their functions for a period of 10 years once they have served their sentences. The multiple homicide escaped from prison again on February 2, 2020, this time from the La Mega Joya Penitentiary Center, but the officers recaptured the fugitive on February 13 of the same year, in the El Salao area in Remedios, Chiriquí Province.
Ventura Ceballos was trying to find a way to leave the city, but there was an extensive national search, and finally, members of the National Police's Intelligence Operations arrested him.
The escape of this criminal generated the resignation of Rolando Mirones at the head of the Ministry of Public Security and the dismissal of Carlos Romero from the Ministry of Government. On November 28, 2020, Ventura Ceballos's sentence was reduced from 50 to 30 years.
