THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. FELIPE VILLAS Y TANTI, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

In the Court of First Instance of Manila Felipe Villas y Tanti was charged with robbery, with homicide and rape, to
which, upon arraignment, he pleaded not guilty. 
After conferring with him, his counsel de officio informed the Court
that, apparently, the defendant did not understand the information read to him,
and so moved that he be allowed to withdraw the plea already entered.  After clarifying this matter with the
defendant, the trial court allowed the withdrawal of his plea of not guilty and
or­dered that he be arraigned anew, the allegations of the information to be
translated to him, this time, in the “waray-waray”
dialect in view of his being from the pro­vince of Leyte.  Upon being rearraigned,
he pleaded guilty.  This notwithstanding,
the trial court ordered the pre­sentation of evidence to prove the aggravating
circumstances alleged in the information, as well as of any mitigating
circumstance which the defendant might wish to invoke.

During the hearing held on November 12, 1962, the prosecution presented Detective
Alfredo Lazarte mainly to identify defendant’s
extrajudicial confession (Exhibit A in the record) and to describe the
reenactment of the commission of the crime. Other witnesses placed in the stand
by the prosecution were: Teresita Zavalla, a niece
and helper in the Afable Flower Shop of the owner – the
deceased Catalina Colman; Dr. Mariano B. de Lara, medico-legal officer of the
Manila Police Department, and Daisy Orly de Gagui, a sister of said deceased.

The defendant, for his part, waived, through counsel, his right
to present evidence.

On February 1, 1963
the trial court rendered judgment as follows:

“FOR ALL THE FOREGOING CONSIDERATIONS, the Court finds
defendant FELIPE VILLAS Y TANTI guilty to a moral and legal certain­ty of the
crime of robbery with homicide complexed further by
rape, defined and pe­nalized in Article 294, Cases Nos. 1 and 2, in relation to
Article 335, Case No. 3, also of the said Code, as amended by Re­public Act No.
2632, with the aggravating circumstances of grave abuse of confidence and nocturnity, only one of which was off­set by the mitigating
circumstance of vo­luntary plea of guilty, and therefore, in keeping with the
solemn mandate of the law, sentences the said defendant FELIPE VILLAS Y TANTI
to suffer extreme penalty of death by electrocution, with the acces­sory
penalties prescribed by the law, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased, Cata­lina
Colman, in the amount of P10,000.00, and to pay the costs” (Decision p.
134, rec.).

By reason of the penalty imposed, the record of the case was
forwarded to Us for review in accordance with the
provisions of Section 9, Rule 118 of the Rules of Court.

It appears that for almost four years prior to the month of
October, 1962, Felipe Villas y Tanti, 27 years of age
and single, had been employed by the now deceased Catalina Colman – a 47 year
old spinster – as “house boy” or helper in the Afable
Flower Shop which she owned located on Taft Avenue, City of Manila.  He lived in the same pre­mises where the
business was conducted, together with Teresita
Zavalla; Teresita’s mother; a niece of Teresita; another female helper; two male cousins, one of
whom was named Ernesto; end another male helper by the name of Sofronio.  His duty
was to clean the shop and the rooms, end to run errands. 

At about 8 o’clock in
the evening of October 3, 1962,
the now deceased Catalina Colman, accompanied by Teresita,
went to the Lourdes Hospital
at Mandaluyong, Rizal, to
visit Mrs. Felisa Afable,
owner of the Afable building.  At about 9
o’clock that evening, the defendant closed the flower shop, but at 10 o’clock, using a key left hanging near the
door at the rear, he reentered the pre­mises, and as soon as he was in, he
closed the door and returned the key to the place from which he took it.  He then entered the private room of Catalina,
closing the door after him but leaving it unlocked.  Thereafter, he hid under her bed, with the
intention of waiting for her to return and then steal the key of her dresser
once she had fallen asleep.

At about 11 o’clock
that evening, Catalina and Teresita returned, the
former going to her room where she undressed preparatory to going to bed.  After some time, believing that Catalina was
already asleep, the defendant crawled out from under her bed armed with a
hammer which he took from under a wooden trunk found inside the room.  It turned out that Catalina was still awake
and sitting on her bed, so the defendant hit her with the hammer on the face,
and thereafter continued hitting her with more blows on the face and four times
more on other parts of her body.  As Catalina lay prostrate, but still
alive, the defendant took off her underwear and raped her.

After the sexual intercourse, the defendant took a key from
Catalina’s bag and with it he opened her night table and got therefrom money in cash in different deno­minations amounting
to P476.80.  Thereafter, he opened his
victim’s dresser from where he took some pieces of jewelry which he wrapped up
in a blue dress belonging to her and hid the same in the storeroom of the shop,
while he wrapped the money in a paper bag and hid it underground just outside
the premises.  The defendant likewise
took a piggy bank from atop the deceased’s bed, as well as a ring from her left
finger.

After doing all these the defendant
removed his blood tainted clothes and placed them in a can of water.  At about 6
o’clock in the morning, he got up and went inside the flower shop
where he told Ernesto that robbers had broken into the place.  Ernesto, in turn, woke up Teresita,
who, upon seeing the lifeless body of her aunt, called the police.

An autopsy performed by Dr. Lara placed the death of the victim
at about midnight of October 3, 1962 and his report (Exhibit C) contain the following POST MORTEM
FINDINGS:

“MISCELLANEOUS EXTERNAL WOUNDS AND EXTENSION

INTERNALLY:

(1)  
Wounds, curvilinear, close together, contused
and lacerated, multiple (2), scalp, located on the left temporal side of the
head measuring 4 cm. x 1 cm. and 2 cm. x 0.5 cm. respectively directly
overlaying: (a) an extensive
fragmentary and circular depressed fractures of the entire left side of the
cranium, and across the posterior left parietal bone; (b) Massive epidural
clotted hematoma, collected blood compressing upon
the left side of the brain.  (These being
the fatal injuries that killed victim).

(2)  
Swollen bluish red contusion and hematoma, multiple (2), located in the left face and left
lower jaw.

(3)  
Lacerated wounds, multiple (2), involving the
left external ear pinnae and left lower jaw.

(4)  
Blood oozing from the nose and left ear.  [All these (2) thru (4) being fatal and
effects of No. (1).]

(5)  
Multiple extensive bluish red swollen contusions
with several (2) definitely clear red half-circular impressed contusions size
3.5 cm.  diameter
each, the whole extent of the injury being over the en­tire anterior chest
involving mostly the mammary organs.

(6)  
Another half-circular contusion reddish
impression 3.5 cm. in diameter located around the navel of the anterior abdo­men.

(7)  
Buish swollen
contusion located in the lower postero-lateral left
chest.

(8)  
Bruised contusion, multiple (2), located at the
back of the neck.

“MISCELLANEOUS FINDINGS IN INTERNAL ORGANS:

SKELETAL
SYSTEM:

Fractures, extensive,
fragmentary, mul­tiple and circular, depressed, involv­ing the entire left side
of cranium and across the left posterior parietal bone.  (This traumatic fatal fracture referred to
above).

Fractures, left VII thru IX ribs, ante­riorly.

CENTRAL
NERVOUS SYSTEM:

Epidural big traumatic hematoma
compressing upon the left side of the brain; hemorrhage, subdural,
left side.

(This fatal traumatic brain injury referred to above).

RESPIRATORY
SYSTEM.:

Hemorrhages from contusion and aspirated
blood, both lungs, anteriorly.

(These injuries being also fatal). 

GASTROINTESTINAL
TRACT:

Empty stomach, without alcoholic odor. 

LABORA
TORY FINDINGS:

Smear from the vagina show many spermatozoa complete with heads
and tails, four (4) per H. power microscopic field.

“CAUSE
OF DEATH:

Extensive depressed
fragmentary traumatic fractures in the left side of the cra­nium and anterior
left VII thru IX ribs causing massive left epidural hematoma
compressing upon left parietal lobe of train and contusions of lungs, due to
repeated blunt-blows with hard circular object upon the left side of the head,
chest, breasts and abdomen and eviden­ces of recent sex intercourse.”

When first interrogated by the authorities, the defendant denied
any knowledge of the crime, but on October
11, 1962, he broke down and confessed that he had committed the
crime (Exhibit A, pp. 36-40 of the record).

Defendant’s attorney de oficio
submitted a brief in his behalf claiming that the trial court, in finding
Felipe Villas y Tanti guilty of the crime of robbery
with homicide and rape, erred (a) in further finding him guilty of the
aggravating circumstances of nocturnity and grave
abuse of confidence and, as a consequence, (b) in imposing the penalty of death
by electrocution instead of reclusion perpetua.

The record – defendant’s confession, whose authen­ticity and voluntariness are not disputed, and the other evidence of
record, shows beyond cavil that the defendant purposely sought nighttime to
commit the heinous crime.  He took the
first measures that would later lead to its commission by taking advantage of
the fact that the victim left her dwelling at about 8 o’clock in the evening;
by reentering the flower shop about an hour later, then pro­ceeding to his
victim’s room and hiding himself under her bed, from which place he crawled out
afterwards believing that by that time she was already asleep, and upon finding
her still awake and sitting on her bed, assaulted her with a hammer and then
raped her and robbed her.  The least that
could be said, considering the evidence of record, is that nighttime
facilitated the commission of the crime to such an extent that the defendant
was able to consummate it with all its dastardly details without anyone of the
persons living in the same premises becoming aware of what was going on.

As regards the presence of the aggravating circumstance of abuse
of confidence, suffice it to say that there can be no doubt that, for almost
four years prior to the commission of the crime, the defendant had served the
deceased Catalina as a trusted “house boy”; that in the discharge of
his duties as such he was allowed to enter and clean her room and to close the
flower shop.  He, therefore, had access
not only to the latter place but also to the private room of his victim.

IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, we agree with the trial court
that the guilt of the defendant of the crime charged, committed under the
aggravating circumstances alleged in the information, has been established
beyond all reasonable doubt.  As the
decision under review is in accordance with law and the evidence, it is our
painful duty in the premises to affirm, as we do hereby affirm it in all
respects.  With costs.

Concepcion, C.J., Reyes, J.B.L., Dizon, Makalintal, Zaldivar, Sanchez, Fernando, Teehankee,
and Barredo, JJ., concur.

Castro and
Capistrano, JJ., did
not take part.