FIRST
DIVISION
THE UNITED STATES,
Complainant-Appellee,
G.
R.
No. 1289
January
3, 1905
-versus-
ANASTASIO
BOSITO,
ET AL.,
Defendants-Appellants.
D E C I S I
O N
TORRES, J:
On November 10, 1902, certain
individuals, namely: Eleno Bueno, Macario Aquino, Arcadio Soriano, and
Luis Bailen, residents of the town of Santa, Ilocos Sur, went to
Bangued,
Province of Abra, for the purpose of purchasing hogs. On the following
day Arcadio and Luis went to the town of Dolores, Eleno and Macario
remaining
in Bangued; the latter two also left on the 12th of the said month to
return
to their town, as they said at the time. On the 18th of the same month
of November the said Luis and Arcadio returned to Bangued and, after
being
informed of the departure of their companions, immediately left in
search
of them accompanied by Alipio Bernal, the owner of the house where they
had been staying, who was acquainted with the roads, and upon their
arrival
at the barrio of Pugaro, they came upon a place where signs of hogs
having
been tied and also a cloth belt cut to pieces, and they noticed a
strong,
fetid odor, and, suspecting that an accident might have occurred to
their
said companions, they returned to the place, accompanied by the headman
of the barrio and four members of police; and in the place from which
the
fetid odor emanated, they found human remains, destroyed clothes, a
pair
of blood-stained linen drawers, and a bamboo helmet, all of which
garments,
according to the said Soriano and Bailen, belonged to their companions,
Eleno Bueno and Macario Aquino, and as they did not also find the money
which they had with them for the purchase of hogs, they concluded that
the said Eleno and Macario had been murdered.
In view of this, on
November 25 of that year, a complaint was filed by the provincial
fiscal
charging the parties, Anastacio Bosito, Emiliano Berido, Lorenzo
Berido,
and the so-called Peru Princena, with the crime of murder and robbery,
in that with bolos, they slew the said Bueno and Aquino, the crime
having
been committed on the road leading to the barrio of Pugaro of the
township
of Bangued, and also for having feloniously seized and taken the money
and hogs of the deceased contrary to law.
The defendants, when
arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and the case being for trial, Lorenzo
Berido
was excluded therefrom to be tried separately; Peru Princena was
acquitted
during the trial [p. 430]; and Emiliano Berido was acquitted on final
judgment,
the proceedings having been continued against Anastasio Bosito only,
who,
on final judgment, was sentenced [p. 70] to imprisonment at hard labor
for twelve years and to pay the costs, etc. From this judgment, the
defendant
Bosito appealed.
The facts proven by
the testimony of the witnesses Arcadio Soriano and Luis Bailen, who, in
the presence of some police officers, identified the clothes which were
found together with the human remains in the place called Pugaro, tend
to show the existence of the crimes of murder and robbery owing to the
fact that neither the money carried by the victims [about one hundred
pesos,
according to the said witnesses] nor the hogs which the victims had
purchased
were found with the remains; and owing also to the fact that since then
the two men had disappeared and had not returned to their residence;
the
conclusion drawn from the fact that the clothes, belt and bamboo helmet
were found destroyed and one of the garments stained with the blood of
the deceased in the place where their remains were found is that the
killing
was done for the purpose of robbing them, and in the act of
perpetrating
this offense against property, and for this reason, it is to be
considered
that the two men who disappeared died violently and upon the occasion
of
the robbery of which they were the victims and that the remains found
with
the garments were their remains.
As to the participation
of the defendant Bosito in the commission of the crimes mentioned, the
case offers no evidence whatever that he [Bosito] took any part in it
or
that he is responsible as one of the principals of said crimes of
murder
and robbery.
In the conclusions
stated in the judgment appealed from. Anastasio Bosito is considered a
simple accessory after the fact in these crimes, which conclusion is
accepted
by the Attorney-General.
The charge made against
the accused is based upon the fact that the two small bags containing
money
were found in possession of the wife of the accused, Marta Barbosa. One
of the bags was made of striped cloth, had fresh blood stains, which
the
wife of the accused at once tried to blot out after having endeavored
to
prevent its examination, and thereupon dropped the other bag [the one
made
of white cloth], which was identified by witnesses Soriano and Bailen
as
one of those belonging to the deceased Eleno Bueno.
The three witnesses,
Juan Villamor, governor of Abra Province, Inspector Frank Knoll, and
the
municipal president of Bangued, Juan Ferraren, affirm that as a result
of the search made by them in the house of the accused they found the
said
bags in possession of his wife, without the accused himself being able
to explain either the origin of the bloodstains on one of the bags or
the
source from whence came the bags and the money which they contained.
These statements made
by the officers who made the arrest tend to prove the responsibility of
the accused Anastasio Bosito, if not as the principal at least as an
accessory
after the fact in the commission of the crime, but they can not prevail
against the evidence adduced in favor of the innocence of the
defendant,
who was able to establish that on the evening of November 12, the date
on which the said crimes are supposed to have been committed, he was in
the house of Marcos Caballero with two witnesses who accompanied him
and
remained in the same house; and in another part of the evidence he
proved
by the testimony of his wife and that of other witnesses, some of them
not his relatives, that the money contained in the bags found was the
proceeds
of tobacco and a hog sold by them; and that if the stains of blood were
really of the deceased they should not be fresh, but totally dry at the
time the bag was found, owing to the number of days which had
intervened
since the date of the attempt.
The evidence adduced
by the prosecution trying to show Anastasio Bosito as an accessory
after
the fact in the commission of the crime, without being sufficient by
itself,
is besides counterbalanced and completely weakened by the proofs of his
exculpation; and if the evidence of the prosecution is not nearly
sufficient
to find the defendant guilty and to impose upon him the penalty
provided
by law, certainly upon the result of the proofs of the defense he can
by
no means be considered guilty nor can his innocence be doubted. He
must,
therefore, be acquitted, with costs de oficio.
The other accused,
Princena and Berido, having been acquitted, there is no reason in law
why
they should be considered in this Decision. [Articles 403, 502, and 503
of the Penal Code noted].
By virtue, then, of
the considerations herein set forth, We are of the opinion that the
judgment
below should be reversed and Anastasio Bosito must be acquitted of the
crimes with which he has been charged, with the costs de oficio;
the money taken from the possession of his wife and the two bags to be
delivered to him, and he shall immediately be released. This case to be
returned to the Court of its origin, together with a certified copy of
this Decision and of the sentence which shall be duly rendered. So
ordered.
Arellano, C.J.,
Mapa, Johnson and Carson, JJ.,
concur.
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