EN BANC
[G.R. No. 15697. September 6, 1920. ]
THE UNITED STATES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MARIANO SINGSON, ROBERTO SISTOSO, GREGORIO MENDOZA and ADRIANO MENDOZA, Defendants. MARIANO SINGSON, Appellant.
Antonio M. Jimenez and Alberto Reyes for Appellant.
Attorney-General Paredes for Appellee.
SYLLABUS
1. CRIMINAL LAW; HOMICIDE; CIRCUMSTANCES. — A judgment convicting the defendant of the crime of homicide, and sentencing him to eight years and one day of prision mayor, on the ground that although the accused acted in self-defense he had exceeded the means rationally necessary to that end, reversed, and judgment entered convicting the defendant of the crime of homicide, marked with the aggravating circumstance of superior force and with no extenuating circumstance, and sentencing him to seventeen years four months and one day of reclusion temporal.
2. ID.; EVIDENCE; FAILURE OF TRIAL COURT TO GIVE DUE WEIGHT TO. — When it affirmatively appears that the trial judge has Overlooked or failed to give due weight to material evidence, this court will review the evidence of record and substitute its of findings of fact for those of the trial judge, and will enter judgment accordingly.
2. ID.; EVIDENCE; FAILURE OF TRIAL COURT TO GIVE DUE WEIGHT TO. — When it affirmatively appears that the trial judge has Overlooked or failed to give due weight to material evidence, this court will review the evidence of record and substitute its of findings of fact for those of the trial judge, and will enter judgment accordingly.
D E C I S I O N
CARSON, J.:
On the morning of June 23, 1919, the appellant, Mariano Singson, took a party of three or more men, all armed with bolos, to cut bamboo in a thicket which stood close by the house of Jose Solla. Singson claimed that he took the party of workmen there by direction of Roman Bermudez, his brother-in-law, the owner of the bamboo; but the evidence clearly discloses that title to the bamboo was in dispute, and that Solla also claimed ownership and the exclusive right to cut the thicket standing just by his house into which Singson sent his workmen.
Hardly had the party of workmen begun operations when Solla appeared on the scene, ordered them to stop, and demanded by what right and by whose orders they were cutting his bamboo. The workmen referred him to Singson who was standing close by, and words passed between these two. A minute or two thereafter Solla’s wife found him lying about 70 or 80 meters away fatally wounded. Solla died within a few hours, but before his death he made a statement to the justice of the peace charging Singson and his coaccused in the lower court with murder.
The prosecution contends that when Solla attempted to stop the cutting of the bamboo. Singson drew a revolver and fired at him and that at the same time Singson’s party attacked him with bolos, whereupon Solla ran away, but was overtaken by Singson and his three coaccused who hacked him to pieces at the point about 70 meters away where his wife found him.
The witnesses for the defense tell a very different story. They testified that Solla, when he learned that the men were cutting the bamboo under the direction of Singson, singled him out for attack, rushed upon him with a drawn bolo in hand, put him to flight, and pursued him a distance of about 70 meters; that as Solla was about to overtake Singson, Singson turned upon his pursuer, drew his bolo which was hanging by his side, and after an exchange of some blows, succeeded in fatally wounding him; and, in the excitement of the moment and o
Hardly had the party of workmen begun operations when Solla appeared on the scene, ordered them to stop, and demanded by what right and by whose orders they were cutting his bamboo. The workmen referred him to Singson who was standing close by, and words passed between these two. A minute or two thereafter Solla’s wife found him lying about 70 or 80 meters away fatally wounded. Solla died within a few hours, but before his death he made a statement to the justice of the peace charging Singson and his coaccused in the lower court with murder.
The prosecution contends that when Solla attempted to stop the cutting of the bamboo. Singson drew a revolver and fired at him and that at the same time Singson’s party attacked him with bolos, whereupon Solla ran away, but was overtaken by Singson and his three coaccused who hacked him to pieces at the point about 70 meters away where his wife found him.
The witnesses for the defense tell a very different story. They testified that Solla, when he learned that the men were cutting the bamboo under the direction of Singson, singled him out for attack, rushed upon him with a drawn bolo in hand, put him to flight, and pursued him a distance of about 70 meters; that as Solla was about to overtake Singson, Singson turned upon his pursuer, drew his bolo which was hanging by his side, and after an exchange of some blows, succeeded in fatally wounding him; and, in the excitement of the moment and o
