GR L 2171; (March, 1950) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-2171; March 4, 1950
EL PUEBLO DE FILIPINAS, plaintiff-appellee, vs. IDE LAGON RAMOS, defendant-appellant.
FACTS
On October 2, 1946, a police patrol in Pandan, Antique, was dispatched to serve warrants and investigate reports of armed men. One officer, Valentin Condes, was sent to locate delayed companions. Near the house of Nepomuceno Napat, Condes was accosted by three men. He escaped and took refuge in Napat’s house, where he found the accused, Ide Lagon Ramos, and three other armed men. Suspicious, Condes asked Napat to accompany him elsewhere. As they descended the stairs, Ramos and his companions followed. At the bottom, Ramos struck Condes with a rifle butt, and a companion struck him again. Ramos then seized Condes’s Thompson submachine gun. Ramos ordered Condes back upstairs and, upon seeing another arriving officer, Epimaco Artiga, fired a burst at him, killing him instantly. Ramos and his group fled with the seized firearms. The accused was later found in the Iloilo provincial jail serving a sentence for illegal possession of firearms. He was charged with the complex crime of robbery with homicide.
ISSUE
Whether the accused, Ide Lagon Ramos, is guilty of the complex crime of robbery with homicide.
RULING
Yes, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Court of First Instance of Antique, convicting the accused of robbery with homicide and sentencing him to reclusion perpetua. The Court held that: (1) the accused was positively identified by witnesses Nepomuceno Napat and policeman Valentin Condes, rendering his defense of mistaken identity and his claim of a different name unmeritorious; (2) his defenses of alibi and good social standing (being a university graduate and landowner) could not prevail against the clear and convincing testimonies of the prosecution witnesses; and (3) the taking of the firearms from the municipal policemen by means of violence constituted robbery, and the killing of Artiga on the occasion thereof constituted the complex crime of robbery with homicide under Article 294(1) of the Revised Penal Code.
AI Generated by Armztrong.