GR 125687; (December, 1999) (Digest)
G.R. No. 125687 December 9, 1999
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. DELFIN RONDERO, accused-appellant.
FACTS
On March 26, 1994, the lifeless body of nine-year-old Mylene Doria was found at Pugaro Elementary School. She was naked from the waist down, bearing severe contusions, a bashed head, and fresh lacerations on her hymen. Earlier that morning, her father, Maximo, while searching for her, saw accused-appellant Delfin Rondero washing his bloodied hands at an artesian well near the school, with an ice pick clenched in his teeth. The well was later found spattered with blood. Hair strands were found clutched in the victim’s hand and at the crime scene.
The prosecution charged Rondero with the special complex crime of rape with homicide. The Regional Trial Court, however, convicted him only of simple homicide, sentencing him to reclusion perpetua. The court ruled that while the killing was proven, the element of carnal knowledge for rape was not established beyond reasonable doubt, citing the absence of spermatozoa in the vaginal smear. The prosecution appealed for the imposition of the death penalty for rape with homicide.
ISSUE
Whether the trial court erred in convicting the accused of homicide instead of the special complex crime of rape with homicide.
RULING
Yes. The Supreme Court modified the conviction to rape with homicide and imposed the death penalty. The legal logic is that an appeal by the accused opens the entire case for review, allowing the appellate court to correct errors, including those favorable to the accused. The trial court’s reliance on the negative spermatozoa finding was a grave error. Medical jurisprudence holds that the absence of sperm cells does not negate rape; penetration alone is sufficient. The fresh lacerations on the victim’s hymen and labia minora, conclusively established by the autopsy, constitute clear physical evidence of carnal knowledge. This, coupled with the circumstantial evidence—Rondero washing blood off his hands near the crime scene at the crucial time, the blood at the well, and the hair strands—formed an unbroken chain leading to the moral certainty that Rondero raped and killed the victim. The crime qualified for the imposition of the death penalty under the law at the time. The Court also adjusted the civil liabilities awarded to the heirs.