FIRST
DIVISION
THE UNITED STATES,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
G.
R.
No. 1571
December
28, 1904
-versus-
BASILIO
RECANO,
Defendant-Appellant.
D E C I S I
O N
JOHNSON, J :
The defendant in
this case
was charged with the crime of lesiones graves, and was tried by
the judge of Court of First Instance of the Province of Bataan. He was
found guilty and sentenced to be imprisoned for the period of three
years,
six months and twenty-one days of prision correccional, and to
pay
the injured party the sum of five hundred pesos, and the costs; and in
case the defendant should be insolvent, to subsidiary imprisonment.
The
evidence shows
that in the afternoon of the 11th of July, 1903, in California Street,
of the pueblo of Balanga, a quarrel took place between Pascual Mendoza
and Buenaventura Pardillo, in front of the house of the defendant; that
the said defendant was in his house at the beginning of this quarrel
between
the two mentioned parties; that during the quarrel the defendant came
down
out of his house, and with a bolo struck and stabbed the said
Buenaventura
Pardillo two different times; the first blow inflicted a wound upon the
hand and the other upon the elbow of the said Buenaventura Pardillo.
There
is no evidence to show what was the occasion of the interference in the
said struggle by the defendant.
The
evidence further
shows that thirty-one days expired before the wounds inflicted by the
defendant
upon Pardillo were cured; that as a result of the wounds Pardillo could
not apply himself to his usual work or trade; that Pardillo had
expended
for medicine and medical aid fifty-four Mexican pesos.
The
trial court found
that these facts were sufficient to constitute the crime of lesiones
graves,
provided for and punished in Subsection 2 of Article 416 of the Penal
Code.
The
evidence shows
by two witnesses [folios 8 and 20 of the record] that the defendant was
drunk at the time he inflicted the blows upon said Pardillo. There is
no
proof in the record that he had been in the habit of getting drunk, or
that he was an habitual drunkard. Subsection 6 of Article 9 of the
Penal
Code provides that drunkenness shall constitute an extenuating
circumstance
when the act was committed in that state, if the intoxication was not
habitual.
This fact was not considered by the court.
Under
the decisions
of the Supreme Court of Spain, this circumstance should have been
considered
by the Court as an extenuating circumstance, and it is our duty, under
the present Penal Code, to take into consideration the fact that the
accused
was drunk on the occasion of the commission of the crime, as an
extenuating
circumstance. Considering this fact as an extenuating circumstance,
under
Subsection 2 of Article 81 the minimum penalty of prision
correccional provided for by Section 2 of Article 416 should be
imposed
upon the
defendant. The defendant, Basilio Recaño, is, therefore,
sentenced
to be imprisoned for a period of two years four months and one day of prision
correccional, to pay the costs of the trial, and to pay the
offended
party, Buenaventura Pardillo, the sum of five hundred pesos, and in
case
of insolvency, to suffer subsidiary imprisonment in accordance with the
provisions of the law.
The
sentence of the
Court of First Instance of the Province of Bataan is, therefore,
modified
to conform with the above. So ordered.
Arellano, C.J.,
Torres, Mapa and Carson, JJ., concur. |