G.R. No. 2094. January 11, 1905

This cause comes here en consulta. The defendant was charged with the crime of assassination, committed as follows:

That on the night of the 2d day of January, 1904, in the pueblo of
Naguilian, Province of Isabela, Philippine Islands, he did, with
premeditation and treachery and with the aid of other armed persons,
enter the house of Maria Patiac and did then and there kill, by
shooting, the said Maria Patiac, contrary to the statutes in such case
made and provided.

He was arraigned upon the 7th day of April, 1904, and plead guilty
to the crime charged in the complaint. Notwithstanding this fact the
court proceeded to take the evidence of the witnesses in said cause.
After hearing the proof the judge found the defendant guilty of the
crime charged and sentenced him to the penalty of death.

The evidence shows that upon the night of the 2d of January, 1904,
the defendant, together with several other men armed with deadly
weapons, entered the house of the justice of the peace of the pueblo of
Naguilian, in the Province of Isabela. Upon entering the house the
defendant inquired for the justice of the peace, stating at the same
time that he desired to kill him. Being unable to find the justice of
the peace, he, the defendant, inquired for the wife of the said justice
of the peace, whose name was Maria Patiac, and he began to look through
the house for the purpose of finding her. He found her lying upon the
floor covered with blankets and pillows. The evidence shows that when
he thus found Maria Patiac he uncovered her and threatened to shoot
her. She fell upon her knees and began to pray and beg for mercy, and
while in this attitude the defendant shot her with his rifle in the
left eye, from the effects of which shot she died immediately. After
killing the said Maria Patiac, the defendant with his companions took
and carried away by force and violence from the same locality Victoria
Ramirez, Pia Gamud, Bartolome Manzano, and Alejandro Ramirez, at the
same time stating that they would not cease looking for the justice of
the peace, the husband of Maria Patiac, until they had found him. The
evidence shows that the defendant and his companions entered the house
of Maria Patiac between 11 and 12 o’clock at night.

The evidence further shows that the defendant was the head of an
association known as the “Nuevo Katipunan” and that on the same night
he, together with his armed companions, made repeated threats and
statements that they were going to kill the justice of the peace of the
pueblo of Naguilian, as well as his wife, giving as a reason therefor
that the said justice of the peace and his wife had been traitors to
the said society.

These facts are sufficient to constitute the crime of assassination,
under article 403 of the Penal Code, qualified with the circumstance of
alevosia. Besides the qualifying circumstance of alevosia there exists also the following aggravating circumstances: (1) Premeditation and (2) nocturnity.

There were no extenuating circumstances connected with the
commission of the offense. The crime being qualified as the crime of
assassination, and there being one or more aggravating circumstances,
the defendant should be punished with the maximum penalty provided for
in article 403 of the Penal Code. The penalty imposed by the judge of
the Court of First Instance of the Province of Isabela is therefore
affirmed.

It is the judgment of this court, therefore, that the said defendant
should be condemned to the penalty of death, according to the
provisions of Act No. 451, and shall be hanged by the neck until dead;
and to be executed in the manner prescribed by paragraph 2 of article
101 of the Penal Code, in the public place generally set aside for the
purpose of executing the death sentence, or in some public place to be
determined by the Court of First Instance of the Province of Isabela at
the time of the announcement of this sentence. So ordered.

Arellano, C. J., Torres, Mapa, and Carson, JJ., concur.