GR L 26185; (March, 1968) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-26185 March 13, 1968
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. WILFORIANO CESAR alias JUNIOR, defendant-appellant.
FACTS
The accused, Wilforiano Cesar, was a student at St. Anthony’s Academy in Carmen, Bohol. On March 9, 1966, he drank two glasses of tuba during a school break but attended all his afternoon classes. After classes, he stabbed and killed Segundo Sarce Jr., the Acting Principal Teacher, at the school flagpole. The accused fled but was later found and arrested. Initially charged with the complex crime of direct assault with murder, the information was amended upon his motion, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of direct assault upon a person in authority with homicide. He proved he was 17 years, 9 months, and 12 days old at the time of the crime. The trial court convicted him and imposed an indeterminate penalty.
ISSUE
The sole issue raised on appeal is the correct penalty to be imposed under the circumstances.
RULING
The Supreme Court modified the penalty. The crime is a complex crime (direct assault with homicide), so the penalty for the more serious crime (homicide, punishable by reclusion temporal) is imposed in its maximum period. The accused is entitled to two mitigating circumstances: the privileged mitigating circumstance of minority (Article 68[2]) and the ordinary mitigating circumstance of a plea of guilty (Article 13[7]). Applying Article 64(5) of the Revised Penal Code, the presence of a privileged mitigating circumstance requires the imposition of the penalty next lower to that prescribed by law. The penalty next lower to reclusion temporal is prision mayor. Due to the complex nature of the crime, prision mayor is to be applied in its maximum period. Furthermore, with the ordinary mitigating circumstance of plea of guilty and no aggravating circumstance, Article 64(2) applies, so the maximum period of prision mayor is imposed in its minimum range. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the accused is sentenced to an indeterminate penalty of not less than six (6) years of prision correccional to not more than ten (10) years and eight (8) months of prision mayor. The judgment was affirmed in all other respects.