G.R. No. L-11021, December 1, 1915
THE UNITED STATES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. EUFRASIO ALANO Y AGBUYA, defendant-appellant.

FACTS:
On the evening of July 27, 1914, in the district of Malate, Manila, the defendant, Eufrasio Alano, went looking for his wife, Teresa Marcelo, who had left their home. While searching, he stumbled in an alley and discovered his wife lying on the ground with Martin Gonzalez in a compromising position, as if about to have sexual intercourse. Upon being discovered, Gonzalez fled. Alano, enraged, pursued Gonzalez with a fan-knife but failed to catch him. He then returned home, where he found his wife climbing the stairs. After reprimanding her, he stabbed her multiple times, inflicting twenty-four wounds which caused her death. The trial court convicted Alano of homicide and sentenced him to cadena temporal.

The defense presented evidence of the wife’s longstanding illicit relationship with Gonzalez. This included her unexplained absence in 1913, after which she returned pregnant with a child Alano believed was not his, and a prior incident in June 1914 where Alano caught the two together in his own house but forgave his wife after she begged for pardon. The prosecution’s version, presented through the wife’s relatives, was found by the Supreme Court to be unsubstantiated.

ISSUE:
Whether the defendant is guilty of homicide or if his act falls under Article 423 of the Penal Code, which provides a lesser penalty for a spouse who kills or inflicts serious physical injuries upon the spouse caught in the act of committing adultery.

RULING:
The Supreme Court REVERSED the trial court’s judgment. The Court held that the killing was not simple homicide but was governed by Article 423 of the Penal Code.

The Court found the defendant’s confession credible and accepted it in its entirety, including the extenuating circumstances. It was established that the defendant acted under the immediate provocation of catching his wife in the act of adultery. The Court ruled that the crime was committed under the specific conditions contemplated by Article 423, even though the fatal assault did not occur at the exact spot where the adultery was discovered. The pursuit of the paramour and the subsequent attack on the wife were considered a continuous act stemming from the same impulse of passion and obfuscation.

In imposing the penalty, the Court considered the following mitigating circumstances: (1) that the defendant acted upon an impulse of passion and obfuscation, and (2) the special mitigating circumstance under Article 11 of the Penal Code, as amended by Act No. 2142 (analogous to the defense of relative moral justification). With no aggravating circumstances to offset them, the penalty was imposed in its minimum degree.

DISPOSITIVE PORTION:
Eufrasio Alano y Agbuya was sentenced to six months and one day of destierro (banishment) from the district of Malate. He was prohibited from residing or entering within a radius of twenty-five kilometers from the Malate church during the sentence. He was to be released from custody to serve this sentence. Costs were charged against him.