Case Digest (G.R. No. 238798)
Facts:
CICL XXX v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 238798, March 14, 2023, the Supreme Court En Banc, Zalameda, J., writing for the Court. The petition is a Rule 45 Petition for Review on Certiorari seeking reversal of the Court of Appeals’ Decision dated 29 November 2017 and Resolution dated 19 March 2018, which affirmed with modification the Regional Trial Court of La Trinidad, Benguet, Branch 9 (RTC) Judgment of 28 February 2014 convicting petitioner (a child in conflict with the law, “CICL”) of homicide.Petitioner (the CICL) was originally charged in 2004 with frustrated murder; the Information was later amended to frustrated homicide and finally to homicide after the eventual death of the victim, AAA (died 26 November 2008). The amended Information alleged that on or about 28 October 2003 the then-17-year-old accused, with intent to kill, struck AAA on the head, eye and ear with a blunt instrument, causing injuries that later resulted in death; it also averred the accused’s minority. At arraignment CICL XXX pleaded not guilty and trial proceeded.
The prosecution presented several witnesses (including the victim’s mother BBB, treating physicians Dr. Romeo Concepcion and Dr. Manuel Kelly, Jr., a police officer and other lay witnesses). The defense put the accused and his guardian on the stand; the accused asserted denial and an alibi (that he had been drinking in Baguio the prior night) and later that he quit school and went to work in Sagada. The RTC convicted on 28 February 2014, admitted the victim’s immediate identification of his assailant as part of the res gestae, found the elements of homicide established, and sentenced the accused to prision mayor/reclusion temporal with awards of damages.
On appeal the Court of Appeals (29 November 2017) affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty downward in recognition of petitioner’s minority under the remedial reach of Republic Act No. 9344 (the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006), deleted temperate damages and adjusted the awards, and remanded for appropriate action under Section 51 of RA 9344. The CA found the res gestae exception applicabl...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Was the victim’s out-of-court declaration to his mother admissible as part of the res gestae?
- Did the alleged delay or inadequacy of medical treatment break the causal nexus between the assault and the victim’s death?
- Did the prosecution’s failure to allege the circumstance of discernment in the Information, and the trial court’s omission to discuss discernment, bar conviction under the retroactive application of RA 9344?
- Did petitioner, a 17‑year‑old at the time of the offense, act with discernment so as to be criminally liable?
- Were the penalty, the reduction under mitigating minority, the imposition of an indeterminate sentence, and the civil damages awarded properly deter...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)