THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. BERNARDO TURNO, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

People versus Turno

The Case

This is the People of the Philippine Islands against Bernardo Turno, a criminal appeal from a conviction for homicide. The accused was charged with killing a thirteen-year-old servant boy, Guillermo Castrense, by beating, kicking, and trampling upon him. The case matters to a reviewee for two reasons. First, it shows how the courts treat the defense of an alleged pre-existing illness, here epilepsy, when the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony point to violence as the cause of death. Second, it illustrates the use of circumstantial and medical evidence to establish the causal link between the accused's acts and the victim's death, and it confirms the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength where a grown man overpowers a child.

Procedural History

The accused was tried before the Court of First Instance of Zambales. That court found him guilty of the crime of homicide with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength. It sentenced him to imprisonment for seventeen years, four months and one day of reclusion temporal, with the accessories provided by law, and to pay the costs. The accused appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reviewed the evidence and affirmed the judgment of the trial court, with costs against the appellant.

Facts

On March 15, 1924, the accused Bernardo Turno had in his service a thirteen-year-old boy named Guillermo Castrense. The accused told the boy to gather firewood. When the boy returned, a woman named Catalina, with whom the accused apparently was living maritally, ordered him to get more firewood. The boy answered that he did not know where to go to get more. Catalina insisted, and the boy grinned at her. The accused saw this and said to the child, "make fun of me, but not of your aunt," and ordered him to come upstairs.

The child would not come up, out of fear. The accused went downstairs with a piece of bojo cane, took him by the arm, and beat him several times with the cane until it broke into pieces. The accused continued maltreating the child, kicking and striking him on several parts of his body, and stamping on him after he had fallen to the ground, while the child cried "father, father."

The child escaped and reached the home of his parents the following day. There he complained to his father Vitaliano and his stepmother Ines Ejaus of pains in the chest, the back, and the right side, saying that he was going to die. Asked about the cause, he answered that the accused had beaten, ill-treated, and trampled upon him. His body showed various black and blue spots. He vomited blood at noon and died the next day. Doctor Castrillo performed the autopsy and found scratches and a superficial wound on the body. Upon opening the chest, he found that the right lung exhibited blood flux on all the surface of the outer part, especially on the upper lobe, and the left lung likewise exhibited hemorrhagic centers on the superior lobe, though less pronounced. These findings showed that the lungs had suffered considerable traumatism. Doctor Castrillo testified that the blood flux and hemorrhagic centers must have been caused by the blows received by the deceased, that the lineal scratches indicated he had been whipped, and that in his opinion the pulmonary hemorrhage was the cause of death.

Issues

• Whether or not the guilt of the accused for the death of Guillermo Castrense was proven beyond reasonable doubt.
• Whether or not the death of the child was caused by the blows inflicted by the accused, rather than by the epilepsy alleged by the defense.
• Whether or not the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength was properly appreciated.

Applicable Provisions

The decision refers to the accessories provided by article 59 of the Penal Code, which the trial court imposed together with the principal penalty:

Article 59 of the Penal Code provides for the accessories which may be imposed upon principals of a crime, in accordance with the provisions of the Code.

This provision bears on the case because the trial court's sentence included the accessories prescribed by law for the principal penalty of reclusion temporal.

Ruling

On the first issue, the Court held that the guilt of the accused was proven beyond reasonable doubt. It stated that after studying the evidence, it was convinced of the accused's guilt, citing the doctrine of a prior decision. The eyewitness testimony of those who saw the accused strike the child, together with the medical findings, established the crime.

On the second issue, the Court rejected the defense that the deceased was an epileptic. Even supposing this to be true, the Court held that the symptoms and the conditions of the child previous to his death, the testimony of Doctor Castrillo, and the testimony of the witnesses who saw the accused strike the child clearly showed that death was not due to epilepsy, but the result of the blows inflicted by the appellant. The Court reasoned that the blood flux and hemorrhagic centers on the lungs, which Doctor Castrillo attributed to the blows, and the lineal scratches indicating that the child had been whipped, established the causal link between the accused's acts and the death.

On the third issue, the Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court in all respects, including the finding of abuse of superior strength. The Court found the judgment appealed from to be in accordance with the merits of the case and the law, and affirmed it with costs against the appellant.

Doctrine

A conviction for homicide may rest on the combination of eyewitness testimony and medical evidence establishing that the victim's death resulted from the injuries inflicted by the accused. The defense of a pre-existing illness, such as epilepsy, does not exculpate the accused where the symptoms before death, the autopsy findings, and the testimony of the attending physician and eyewitnesses show that the death was caused by the blows inflicted and not by the illness. The causal link between the accused's acts and the death may be established by the opinion of a qualified physician based on the autopsy, together with the circumstances preceding death. Abuse of superior strength is properly appreciated where a grown man uses his superior strength against a child, as shown by the beating, kicking, and stamping upon the victim. The accessories provided by article 59 of the Penal Code are imposed together with the principal penalty in accordance with law.

Disposition

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Court of First Instance of Zambales convicting Bernardo Turno of homicide with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength, with costs against the appellant.

Remember This

The single line worth memorizing is that the defense of an alleged pre-existing illness does not exculpate an accused where the medical evidence and eyewitness testimony show that death resulted from the blows he inflicted. Examiners like to use this case to test the causal link between the accused's acts and the victim's death, and the proper appreciation of abuse of superior strength where the victim is a child.