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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. 24937. March 20, 1926. ]

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GREGORIA BINGAAN, Defendant-Appellant.

E. A. Perkins for Appellant.

Attorney-General Jaranilla for Appellee.

SYLLABUS


1. WHERE THERE IS A REASONABLE DOUBT, DEFENDANT SHOULD BE ACQUITTED. — Where the defendant was charged with the crime of parricide and plead self-defense, and the act was committed in the home of the deceased some time during the night, and when there was no light in the house, and there were no eyewitnesses, and all of the six wounds which the defendant inflicted were on the left side of the deceased, and where the evidence tends to show that there was a struggle between the husband and the wife, and that she honestly thought that her own wife was in serious danger, and the record shows that her height was only 4 feet and 6 inches, and her weight 37 kilos, all of such facts, together with the surrounding circumstances, are sufficient to create a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant, resulting in her acquittal.

STATEMENT

The appellant was charged in the Court of First Instance of Oriental Negros with the crime of parricide in the following information:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"That on or about June 7, 1925, in the municipality of La Libertad, Oriental Negros, Philippine Islands, and within the jurisdiction of this court, the aforesaid accused willfully, unlawfully and feloniously, with premeditation, treachery, nocturnity and trespass to dwelling (sic) did attack and wound her husband, Gaspar Balbuena, with a knife, inflicting upon him several wounds, as a consequence of which said Gaspar Balbuena died a few hours thereafter; contrary to law."cralaw virtua1aw library

She was found guilty and sentenced to cadena perpetua, with the accessory penalties, to pay an indemnity of P1,000 to the heirs of the deceased, and the costs, from which she appeals, contending that "the lower court erred in not acquitting the defendant of the crime charged."


D E C I S I O N


JOHNS, J.:


In analyzing the evidence, the Attorney-General says:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"It is an undisputed fact that the accused killed her husband Gaspar Balbuena. It has been established also, in our opinion, that there was an unlawful aggression on the part of the deceased. The only witness of the occurrence was the accused, and her uncontradicted testimony on this point is so cogent and reasonable that it has to be accepted. No sufficient motive for the accused to kill her husband has been proved. The more or less strained relations existing between them, due to the jealousy of the husband, could not, we believe, have induced her to kill him in the manner she did. If her husband was sleeping or lying down, according to his dying declaration, when he was stabbed, one thrust of the knife, at some vital part of his body would have been sufficient to end his life. But the fact is that the deceased received six wounds, only three of which could be considered deadly. The position of these wounds, all on the left side of the deceased’s body, one on the left shoulder and two in the left arm; their depth, the maximum being 1
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