A convicted murderer who stabbed his parents and teenage sister to death in their home so he could access their $1.2million estate is seeking a royal pardon on the 20th anniversary of their deaths.
Sef Gonzales killed his father Teodoro ‘Teddy’ Gonzales, 46, his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales, 43, and his sister Clodine Gonzales, 18, at their North Ryde home, in northern Sydney, on July 10 in 2001.
Gonzales was sentenced to three life terms without parole in 2004, becoming one of the youngest ‘lifers’ to serve in an Australian prison at the age of 20.
He has repeatedly appealed his conviction, maintaining his innocence, though his three bids for freedom have all been knocked back by the NSW Supreme Court.
Now he has taken the matter directly to the NSW Attorney General and applied for a royal pardon in hopes of regaining his freedom in time for the 20th anniversary of the triple-murder.
A convicted murderer (pictured, Sef Gonzales in 2001) who stabbed his parents and teenage sister to death in their home is seeking a royal pardon on the 20th anniversary of their deaths
Sef Gonzales killed his father Teodoro ‘Teddy’ Gonzales, 46, his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales, 43, and his sister Clodine Gonzales, 18, at their North Ryde home, in northern Sydney, in 2001
‘I just want to honour my family on the anniversary of their death,’ he said.
‘For 20 years, the way they died has been incorrectly recorded in history. I just want to set the record straight.’
Gonzales has argued his innocence in a 20 page document that is titled: ‘Miscarriage of Justice in the Case of Sef Gonzales’, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The document draws a comparison to Lindy Chamberlain who claimed her baby daughter Azaria had been taken and killed by a dingo while camping at Uluru in 1980.
Ms Chamberlain was wrongly convicted of the murder in 1982 before she was given a pardon by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 1987.
‘I want to make sure that it’s firstly about the evidence and about setting the record straight about what happened to my family,’ Gonzales said.
The document challenges key evidence that was used to help convict Gonzales of the crimes.
Gonzales initially told police he had discovered the bodies at his home after returning from a night out with his friend.
Gonzales was sentenced to three life terms without parole in 2004, becoming one of the youngest ‘lifers’ to serve in an Australian prison
Gonzales has repeatedly appealed his conviction, maintaining his innocence, though his bids for freedom have all been knocked back by the NSW Supreme Court
He said he found written across the lounge-room wall in blue paint the phrase ‘F**k off Asians KKK’.
Prosecutors claimed the same coloured paint had been discovered on his jumper sleeve and that he could have written the phrase to stage the murders as a race-hate crime.
Gonzales argues in the document there is no forensic evidence to link him to the graffiti and he firmly denies he wrote it.
The document also claims that Gonzales’ family was killed by a political enemy of their father Teddy.
It states Teddy had been working as a lawyer when the family lived in the Philippines and that he was openly critical of the country’s dictator Ferdinand Marcos – who ruled between 1965 and 1986.
Gonzales has also challenged a testimony from his aunt Emily Luna who had knocked on the door of the house while her nephew was inside murdering his family (pictured, Gonzales at his family’s funeral in 2001)
Prosecutors told the court during the murder trial that Gonzales had partly murdered his family so he could gain access to their $1.2million estate
The family then moved to Australia in the 1990s and were granted refugee status.
The document claims Teddy had come into contact with a former rival and received a threatening phone call sometime before he was murdered.
Though the rival named in the document has passed away.
Gonzales has also challenged a testimony from his aunt Emily Luna who had knocked on the door of the house at the time the murderer was inside the home.
Ms Luna told a court in 2004 that she saw a figure in a dark window and guessed the person inside the house was taller than her.
Gonzales claims in the document he could not have been the figure spotted in the window as he is the same height as his aunt.
Prosecutors told the court during the murder trial that Gonzales had partly murdered his family so he could gain access to their $1.2million estate.
They said he had sold his family’s cars and pawned his mother’s jewellery before putting down a deposit on a $173,000 Lexus.
Gonzales is seen at his family’s funeral after they were murdered at their North Ryde home in 2001