G.R. No. 2288. September 27, 1905

The defendant here is charged with the crime of assassination, in
that he did, in company with Hilario Tal Placido, Isauro Tobias, and
Bartolome Agapito, kill with a gun one Pedro de la Cruz “en el sitio de
Danpulan,” in the pueblo of Jaen, in the Province of Nueva Ecija.

The proof adduced at the trial shows that the defendant did kill
Pedro de la Cruz by shooting him with a gun, that the ball entered the
back of the neck, passing out through the right eye of the said Pedro
de la Cruz, from the effects of which the said Pedro de la Cruz then
and there died. These facts were admitted by the defendant and
substantiated and proven by the said Hilario Tal Placido and Isauro
Tobias. The defendant alleged in his defense that he killed the said
Pedro de la Cruz by virtue of an order issued by one David P. Willar, a
lieutenant in the United States Army, of the Twenty-second Infantry,
who was then and there in command of a detachment of United States
soldiers in the Province of Nueva Ecija. The defendant made no pretense
nor did he offer any evidence to show that the order of the said
lieutenant to kill the said Pedro de la Cruz had been given to him. The
evidence shows that if such order was given at all, it was given to the
said Isauro Tobias, who was then and there acting as interpreter for
the said lieutenant, and by him communicated to the said defendant. It
was further admitted that if said order had been given at all, it was
given orally.

Even admitting that the order as claimed by the defendant had been
given, it was illegal and it was his duty to disobey it. He had no
right to obey the order even though it had been given. His acts were
illegal and in violation of law.

None of the conditions mentioned in article 403 of the Penal Code
are found to exist in the commission of the crime charged against the
defendant here. The acts committed by the defendant in taking the life
of the said Pedro de la Cruz constitute the crime of homicide, defined
and punished in article 404 of the Penal Code.

The Court of First Instance of the Province of Nueva Ecija, after
hearing the evidence adduced in said cause, sentenced the said Felix
Garcia to be imprisoned for a period of seventeen years four months and
one day of cadena temporal; to the accessories of civil
interdiction during the term of the sentence, perpetual absolute
disqualification and subjection to the surveillance of the authorities
during his life; to indemnify the heirs of the deceased in the sum of
P500, and to the payment of the costs of the proceedings.

The evidence adduced during the trial is sufficient to justify the
sentence rendered by the lower court and the same is hereby affirmed
with costs. So ordered.

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