GR L 47882; (April, 1941) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-47882; April 14, 1941
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. NICASIO NERIA Y KALAMBACAL, defendant-appellant.
FACTS
An information for qualified theft was filed against Nicasio Neria y Kalambacal, a messenger in the Bureau of Forestry, for taking two treasury warrants (totaling P1,134.77) drawn in favor of Mariano O. Castillo, with intent to gain. The defendant pleaded guilty. The trial court sentenced him to an indeterminate penalty of four months and twenty days of arresto mayor to one year, eight months and twenty-one days of prision correccional, and ordered him to indemnify the bureau in the sum of P1,134.77, with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.
ISSUE
The sole issue is the propriety of the penalty imposed by the trial court.
RULING
The Supreme Court modified the judgment. The offense of qualified theft falls under Article 310 in relation to Article 309(3) of the Revised Penal Code, prescribing a penalty of prision correccional in its maximum period to prision mayor in its minimum period. With the mitigating circumstance of a plea of guilty, the penalty should be imposed in its minimum period (four years, two months and one day to five years, five months and ten days) under Article 64(2). Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the minimum penalty must be within the range of the penalty next lower in degree. The penalty next lower to prision correccional maximum to prision mayor minimum is prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods (six months and one day to four years and two months). The trial court’s imposed minimum and maximum penalties were below the proper legal ranges. Regarding indemnity, since the Solicitor-General represented that the treasury warrants were not cashed, no pecuniary damage occurred, and thus no indemnity was proper. The appellant was sentenced to a minimum penalty of six months and one day to a maximum of four years, two months and one day of prision correccional, with accessories of the law, without indemnity, and to pay costs.