This case has been cited 4 times or more.
|
2015-06-29 |
BERSAMIN, J. |
||||
| There is treachery when the offender commits any of the crimes against persons, employing means and methods or forms in the execution thereof which tend to directly and specially ensure its execution, without risk to himself arising from the defense which the offended party might make.[29] Two conditions must concur in order for treachery to be appreciated, namely: one, the assailant employed means, methods or forms in the execution of the criminal act which give the person attacked no opportunity to defend himself or to retaliate; and two, said means, methods or forms of execution were deliberately or consciously adopted by the assailant.[30] Treachery, whenever alleged in the information and competently and clearly proved, qualifies the killing and raises it to the category of murder.[31] | |||||
|
2004-01-15 |
PANGANIBAN, J. |
||||
| Two of the prosecution witnesses -- namely, the mother and the brother of appellant's deceased spouse -- attested in court that Ben had been married to Marivic.[17] The defense raised no objection to these testimonies. Moreover, during her direct examination, appellant herself made a judicial admission of her marriage to Ben.[18] Axiomatic is the rule that a judicial admission is conclusive upon the party making it, except only when there is a showing that (1) the admission was made through a palpable mistake, or (2) no admission was in fact made.[19] Other than merely attacking the non-presentation of the marriage contract, the defense offered no proof that the admission made by appellant in court as to the fact of her marriage to the deceased was made through a palpable mistake. | |||||
|
2000-02-22 |
BELLOSILLO, J. |
||||
| The trial court, however, erred in appreciating the qualifying circumstance of evident premeditation. The court below concluded that accused-appellant must have planned the killing considering that he harbored a grudge against the deceased for quite some time. This basis falls short of the requirement that the element of evident premeditation must, like the crime itself, be proved beyond reasonable doubt. There is evident premeditation when the following are satisfactorily proved: (a) the time when the appellant decided to commit the crime; (b) an overt act showing that the appellant clung to his determination to commit the crime; and, (c) the lapse of sufficient period of time between the decision and the execution of the crime, to allow the appellant to reflect upon the consequences of the act.[9] Other than the fact that accused-appellant had the motive to kill the victim, the prosecution in the instant case miserably failed to establish that he plotted the killing of Briones and that he had sufficient time to ponder over his plan. Notably, the proof of motive is no longer necessary in view of the positive identification of accused-appellant as the assailant. | |||||
|
2000-01-31 |
PARDO, J. |
||||
| The trial court rightly ruled that the qualifying circumstance of evident premeditation was not present in this case. "The essential elements for evident premeditation to be appreciated are: (1) the time when the appellant decided to commit the crime; (2) an overt act showing that the appellant clung to their determination to commit the crime; and (3) the lapse of a sufficient period of time between the decision and the execution of the crime to allow the appellant to reflect upon the consequences of the act."[29] Moreover, "evident premeditation must be clearly proven, established beyond reasonable doubt and must be based on external acts which are evident, not merely suspected, and which indicate deliberate planning."[30] The prosecution failed to prove evident premeditation. | |||||