This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2002-06-06 |
QUISUMBING, J. |
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| The well-settled rule is that when the issue is one of credibility of witnesses, the appellate court will generally not disturb the findings of the trial court[14] since the latter is in a better position to decide this issue. [15] However, this rule is not absolute. It is subject to exceptions. One concerns a situation where the judge who penned the decision did not personally hear the evidence for the prosecution.[16] In the present case, Judge David Alfeche, Jr., the ponente, only inherited this case from Judge Amelita K. Del Rosario who conducted the trial and heard the witnesses testify. | |||||
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2002-02-06 |
PARDO, J. |
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| "Finally, to appreciate the qualifying circumstance of abuse of superior strength, what should be considered is whether the aggressors took advantage of their combined strength in order to consummate the offense. To take advantage of superior strength means to purposely use excessive force out of proportion to the means available to the person attacked to defend himself."[16] In the case at bar, the victim Uldarico de Castro was the one who picked a fight with the accused-appellants because he did not like the joke by one of the accused-appellants. There was no evidence to show that the accused-appellants purposely sought and took advantage of their number to subdue the victim. | |||||