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THE
PEOPLE OF THE
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,
G.
R.
No. 42249
January
22, 1935
-versus-
ISIDRO VIZCARRA, Defendant-Appellant. VICKERS,
J :
The defendant and appellant
was tried in the Court of First Instance of Manila on a plea of not
guilty
to an Information alleging:
Upon the termination of
the trial, the lower court found the defendant guilty as charged, with
the presence of the mitigating circumstance of lack of intention to
commit
so grave a wrong as that committed, and sentenced him to suffer an
indeterminate
sentence of not less than six years and one day of prision mayor
and not more than twelve years and one day of reclusion temporal,
to indemnify the heirs of Eugenio Motos in the sum of P500, and to pay
the costs.
Appellant's attorney now alleges that the trial judge committed the following errors:
"2. The lower court erred in not finding that the cause of death was the falling of the deceased against the cement pavement as a result of the struggle between him and the accused. "3. The lower court erred in giving credit to the testimony of Mateo Franco. "4. The lower court erred in finding the accused guilty of the crime." In a well considered decision,
Judge Proceso Sebastian made the following findings of fact which are
fully
sustained by the evidence of record:
"It has also been established that the deceased upon his being taken to the hospital of Bilibid, was immediately examined and treated by Dr. Mariano Dimanlig, resident physician and Assistant Chief Surgeon of the Bureau of Prisons. Doctor Dimanlig suspected that the patient was suffering from a lesion in the cervical vertebra, in view of the patient's inability to move his head and because there was a general paralysis of his body. Notwithstanding the efforts displayed by Doctor Dimanlig, who treated the patient, the latter died in the hospital on January 5, 1934. "In order to determine the real cause of death of Eugenio Motos, Doctor Estrada, Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Bilibid Hospital, and the City Fiscal requested the Medico-Legal Department of the University of the Philippines to perform an autopsy. Dr. Pablo Anzures, medico-legal officer of the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of the Philippines and a pathologist working in the City Morgue, conducted a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased. His findings were as follows:
'Hemorrhages around and within the spinal cord, cervical portion. 'Myelitis, compression. 'Distension, congestion, edema and emphysema of lungs. 'Congestion of all organs.'
There
can be no reasonable
doubt that the neck of Eugenio Motos was broken when he and the
defendant
fell to the ground in their struggle while the defendant was holding
the
neck of Motos under his left arm in what is called a "head lock." The
evidence
shows that there was no stone or other object against which the neck of
the deceased might have struck, and since the ground was level, the
falling
of the deceased might have injured the back of his head, but could not
have caused the dislocation of a bone in his neck unless his neck had
been
held as in a vise by the defendant. The evidence further shows that the
defendant was not acting in self-defense, but that he had wrongfully
assaulted
Motos. The only mitigating circumstance to which the defendant is
entitled
is, as correctly found by the lower court, that he did not intend to
kill
the deceased.
The assignments of
error are devoid of merit, and, with the sole modification that the
indemnity
be increased from P500 to P1,000, the Decision appealed from is
affirmed,
with the costs against the appellant.
Avanceña, C.J., Street, Abad Santos and Hull, JJ., concur. |
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