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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. 1478. February 16, 1904. ]

THE UNITED STATES, Complainant-Appellee, v. JUAN DE LA CRUZ ET AL., Defendants-Appellants.

Geo. W . Lyon, for Appellants.

Solicitor-General Araneta, for Appellee.

SYLLABUS


1. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE; BRIGANDAGE; COMPLAINT OR INFORMATION; AMENDMENT DURING TRIAL. — It is not error for the trial court to permit the prosecuting attorney to amend hi information in the course of the trial by changing the name of the leader of the band of brigands of which the accused are charged of being members.

The defendants were prosecuted on an information for the crime of brigandage. In the course of the trial the court permitted the prosecuting officer to amend the information eliminating the words "led by one Silverio" and substituting therefor the words "under the command of Luciano San Miguel."


D E C I S I O N


MAPA, J.:


The defendants were sentenced in the Court of First Instance to the penalty of twenty years’ imprisonment for the crime of brigandage, punished by section 1 of Act No. 518 of the Commission. The merits of the case demonstrate sufficiently the guilt of the said defendants and justify the sentence for the aforementioned crime.

The amendment to the complaint made before the presentation of the evidence for the defense has not prejudiced, nor could it have prejudiced, any essential rights of the defendants as well because it did not affect the essence of the crime charged, but merely an accidental detail of the same, as because it did not deprive the accused of an opportunity to produce evidence for their defense, if they had desired, in relation to the said amendment; its allowance was not, therefore, a fatal error, as the defense contends, relying upon section 10 of General Orders, No. 58.

For the reason stated we affirm the sentence appealed from, imposing the cost of both instances upon the defendants. So ordered.

Arellano, C.J., Torres, Cooper, Willard, McDonough and Johnson, JJ., concur.

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