Case Digest (G.R. No. 181430)
Facts:
Felipe Ronquillo y Guillermo and Gilbert Torres y Natalia, petitioner-appellants, were charged with homicide before the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 33, Ballesteros, Cagayan, for the killing of Edgar Ronquillo on or about June 23, 2001. The Information alleged that petitioners, armed with a shovel and bamboo and conspiring together, intentionally attacked and struck the victim, inflicting head wounds that caused his death.On the evening of June 23, 2001 petitioners and Alejandro Rivera were drinking near a store when Edgar Ronquillo, a first cousin of Felipe Ronquillo, passed by. A heated argument ensued between Felipe and the victim and the two boxed each other; Felipe twice kicked Edgar, after which the victim drew a knife and stabbed Felipe in the left thigh. Torres then struck the victim on the nape with a shovel, and as the victim lay unconscious, Felipe repeatedly struck him with a bamboo pole. The victim died the next day. The death certificate listed brain herniation, intracranial hemorrhage, mauling and a closed fracture of the left humerus as causes/contributing conditions.
At trial petitioners interposed self-defense, asserting that the victim had been the initial aggressor and was armed with a knife; that the force they used was reasonably necessary to repel the attack; and that they did not provoke the encounter. They also contested the existence of conspiracy. The principal prosecution witness, Rivera, however, testified that Felipe began the quarrel, boxed and kicked Edgar, and that Torres came from the back and struck Edgar with a shovel; Rivera further testified that petitioners clubbed the victim after he fell unconscious.
By Decision dated June 30, 2005 (RTC, penned by Judge Eugenio M. Tangonan, Jr.), the trial court found the accused not credible on self-defense and convicted them of homicide, sentencing each to eight years four months to fourteen years eight months and awarding P50,000 each for civil indemnity, moral and actual damages. The Court of Appeals, in a decision dated July 27, 2007 (pened by Associate Justice Rodrigo V. Cosico, with Associate Justices Hakim S. Abdulwahid and Arturo G. Tayag concurring), affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty to the indeterminate term of prision mayor (8 years and 1 day) to reclusion temporal (14 years, 8 months and 1 day) and substituted P25,000 temperate damages in lieu of actual damages.
...(Subscriber-Only)Issues:
- Did petitioners establish self-defense (i.e., the presence of unlawful aggression and the other elements) to justify their use of deadly force?
- Was there sufficient proof of conspiracy between petitioners in the killing of the victim, or are they at le...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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