Title
People vs. Pajotal y Fetalcorin
Case
G.R. No. 142870
Decision Date
Nov 14, 2001
Three men robbed and fatally stabbed Winefred Espina during a jeepney holdup; Dindo Pajotal convicted of robbery with homicide, death penalty upheld.
robbery with homicide
eyewitness testimony
alibi defense
A

Case Summary (G.R. No. 142870)

Factual Background

On October 21, 1996 at about 2:45 p.m., Winefred Espina was driving a passenger jeepney on a delivery trip from Bulalacao. His nephew, Arnold Bugayon, sat beside him in the front seat. Before reaching Sitio Mabaho in Mansalay, three men intercepted the vehicle. They boarded: one man clung to the left front side near Espina; the second sat beside Bugayon; and the third hung at the rear platform.

In Sitio Mabaho, one of the men ordered Espina to stop. Espina refused. The three men then demanded money. When Espina resisted, accused-appellant Dindo Pajotal poked a knife at Bugayon and threatened to kill him if Espina did not hand over the money. Espina eventually complied and handed his money to the person on his left. Although that man obtained it, he stabbed Espina on the left thigh, apparently to prevent Espina from retrieving the money.

Espina alighted to confront the assailants. Accused-appellant also alighted and attempted to stab Bugayon, but Bugayon escaped by passing through the driver’s side. Bugayon observed accused-appellant and the others ganging up on Espina. Bugayon tried to help, but one of the men holding a knife stopped him and challenged him. Espina instructed Bugayon to run. Bugayon fled due to fear, later sought assistance from passersby but none helped. A passenger bus then passed, and Bugayon reported the incident to police at the PNP station in Mansalay.

At 6:30 p.m. the same day, Dr. Domingo Asis, Rural Health Physician, conducted an autopsy. His postmortem report described fifteen (15) stab and other injuries, and he stated that, based on wound locations, the assailant(s) could have been in front or beside the victim. He could not state with certainty how many persons attacked. The death certificate later indicated that Espina died on October 21, 1996 due to hemorrhagic shock from multiple wounds, with the fatal wounds identified as wounds no. 10 and 11.

Trial Court Conviction and Sentence

The RTC found accused-appellant guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, of the special complex crime of robbery with homicide, holding that qualifying circumstances of treachery and evident premeditation and the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength attended the commission of the offense. The RTC sentenced accused-appellant to suffer death. It also ordered monetary awards in favor of the heirs of the victim: P50,000.00 as compensatory damages for loss of life, P26,000.00 as actual damages, and P500,000.00 as lost earnings. For the co-accused who were at large, the RTC directed the issuance of an alias warrant.

Issues Raised on Appeal

Accused-appellant contended that the State failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt, arguing especially that alibi should be treated as plausible because Bugayon was the only witness who identified him and his testimony was uncorroborated. He further argued that even if he were guilty of killing the victim, the RTC erred in convicting him for robbery with homicide, because he claimed the evidence showed only two separate crimes—simple robbery and homicide—which would warrant separate treatment and a lesser penalty.

The Parties’ Contentions

The defense maintained that his principal defense was alibi and that it should operate to negate identity as the assailant. He asserted that there was no other witness to corroborate Arnold Bugayon’s identification.

The prosecution, as sustained by the RTC, relied on Bugayon’s account of the robbery and stabbing, treated as credible and sufficient for conviction even if Bugayon was the lone eyewitness, and on the consistency between the eyewitness narrative and the medical findings of Dr. Asis.

On the characterization of the offense, the defense position was that the fatal injuries were inflicted after the robbery, so the killing was not by reason or on the occasion of the robbery under Art. 294, paragraph 1 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by R.A. No. 7659. The prosecution position, as adopted by the RTC and sustained in the Supreme Court’s reasoning, treated death as sufficiently connected to the robbery to qualify the offense as a special complex crime.

Supreme Court’s Findings on Guilt and Identity

The Court rejected the contention that the prosecution evidence was insufficient. It emphasized that the testimony of a lone eyewitness, when credible and positive, could be sufficient to convict. The Court noted that the RTC had heard Bugayon and had evaluated his demeanor; it therefore accorded respect to the trial judge’s assessment absent substantial overlooked facts or arbitrariness.

The Court held that Bugayon could not have failed to recognize accused-appellant, given the circumstances: the incident occurred in broad daylight; Bugayon personally saw accused-appellant clinging to the jeepney and identified him as the front-seat assailant; and Bugayon himself was assaulted when accused-appellant attempted to stab him. The Court further observed that the natural reaction of a victim of criminal violence is to strive to identify the culprits, and it cited jurisprudence to support the sufficiency of credible eyewitness testimony even when only one witness testified.

The Court found Bugayon’s testimony strengthened by Dr. Asis’s autopsy findings. It noted the reported stabbing of Espina on the left thigh and the scuffle in which the assailants stabbed Espina with knives while one of them used a stone. These were consistent, in the Court’s view, with the variety and locations of the injuries, including incisions and lacerations that could have been caused by knives and a fracture that could have resulted from a stone.

The Court then addressed alibi. It reiterated that for alibi to prevail over prosecution evidence of guilt, the accused must establish not only that he was somewhere else but also that it was physically impossible for him to be at the scene at the time of the commission of the crime. The Court held that accused-appellant failed to prove physical impossibility. It observed that accused-appellant’s house was only about half a kilometer from the national highway and that the distance could be traversed in fifteen minutes on foot. It also considered accused-appellant’s testimony that he was an athletic person and an additional witness’s testimony that he saw accused-appellant working at about 3:00 p.m., which did not establish the decisive time gap required by alibi. The Court characterized alibi as inherently weak and held that it could not defeat positive identification by an eyewitness with no improper motive to testify falsely.

Accordingly, the Court concluded that accused-appellant’s guilt for the crime charged was proven beyond reasonable doubt.

The Crime Characterization: Robbery with Homicide

On the alleged mischaracterization of the offense, the Court rejected the defense view that the homicide occurred after the robbery in a way that broke the required connection. The Court held that for the existence of robbery with homicide, it is enough that death results by reason or on the occasion of the robbery. It explained that the law does not require a rigid sequencing of the homicide in relation to the robbery. What is essential is a direct relation or intimate connection between the robbery and the killing, with the original design of the culprits being robbery and the homicide perpetrated with a view to the accomplishment or consummation of the robbery.

The Court stated that it does not matter whether the homicide preceded the robbery, occurred after it, or took place at the same time, so long as the killing was sufficiently connected to the robbery and resulted because of it. It supported this approach with doctrine and with the holding in People v. Guiapar that death resulting from injury sustained during the robbery qualified the offense as robbery with homicide.

Applying these principles, the Court found Bugayon’s narration sufficient. Bugayon testified that the initial stab to the thigh occurred after Espina was reluctant about parting with the money, and after the first stab Espina attempted to act in order to recover the money by getting off the jeepney. At that point, accused-appellant and his co-accused continued stabbing Espina several times and struck him with a stone. The Court therefore agreed with the trial court that the homicide was committed by reason or on the occasion of the robbery.

Qualifying Circumstances and Aggravating Factor

The Court corrected the trial court’s appreciation of qualifying circumstances. It held that the trial court was correct in not appreciating evident premeditation as a qualifying circumstance because it was inherent in the crime of robbery with homicide. However, it held that the trial court should not have appreciated treachery. The Court reasoned that although Espina was surprised by the first stab on the thigh, the evidence showed a struggle and combat for several minutes between the protagonists and the assailants. The presence of struggle negated the first element of treachery—namely, a sudden attack that leaves the victim no opportunity to defend himself or retaliate. The Court concluded that Espina was forewarned of the impending attack and was afforded an opportunity to put up a defense.

Even with the absence of treachery, the Court held that the killing remained qualified by abuse of superior strength, which had been expressly alleged in the Information. It found physical disparity: accused-appellant and his co-accused outnumbered the unarmed victim and used knives and a stone against him. The Court characterized the force used as out of proportion to the means of defense available to the victim. For this reason, the penalty of death imposed by the RTC was sustained.

The Court anchored penalty selection on Art. 294, paragraph 1 as amended by R.A. No. 7659, which prescribes reclusion perpetua to death when, by reason or on occasion of robbery, homicide is committed with violence or intimidation of persons. It further invoked Ar

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