GR 45704; (May, 1938) (Digest)
G.R. No. 45704 ; May 25, 1938
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. CLEMENTE MANGSANT Y ESMIÑA, defendant-appellant.
FACTS
The defendant, Clemente Mangsant, was charged with murder for stabbing and killing his 14-year-old fiancée, Demetria Ferrer, in Manila. He initially pleaded not guilty but later changed his plea to guilty during trial. He testified that he killed her in a fit of obfuscation after she revealed she loved another man. The trial court convicted him of murder, considering the aggravating circumstances of evident premeditation, disregard of sex, and abuse of superior strength, and the mitigating circumstances of lack of instruction, obfuscation, and plea of guilty. It sentenced him to reclusion perpetua.
ISSUE
Whether the trial court correctly considered the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in imposing the penalty.
RULING
No. The Supreme Court modified the penalty. It held that the aggravating circumstances alleged (evident premeditation, disregard of sex, abuse of superior strength) were not proven or were inherent in the crime and absorbed by the qualifying circumstance of treachery. The mitigating circumstances of lack of instruction and obfuscation were not applicable; only the mitigating circumstance of voluntary confession (plea of guilty) was present. With one mitigating circumstance and no aggravating circumstances to offset it, the penalty for murder (reclusion temporal maximum to death) was imposed in its minimum period. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the defendant was sentenced to an indeterminate penalty of 10 years of prision mayor to 17 years, 4 months, and 1 day of reclusion temporal, with indemnity and costs.
AI Generated by Armztrong.