G.R. No. L-6432, March 22, 1911
THE UNITED STATES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. PEDRO BALAGTAS and GREGORIO JAIME, defendants-appellants.

FACTS

Defendants Pedro Balagtas and Gregorio Jaime were convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance of Manila. The victim, Simeon Flores, was with the defendants on the evening of May 4, 1910. They walked to a secluded area near railroad tracks, where Flores was knocked down, struck in the face, and rendered unconscious. While still groaning, the defendants carried him and threw him face down into a pond, where he drowned. The body was found the next day. Each defendant, in their confessions and testimonies, blamed the other for initiating the attack, but both admitted participation in disposing of the body.

ISSUE

Whether the crime committed was murder qualified by treachery (alevosia) or homicide, and whether the aggravating circumstances of nocturnity and uninhabited place were present.

RULING

The Supreme Court reversed the murder conviction and held the crime to be homicide, not murder. The Court ruled that treachery (alevosia) was not present. The attack was not shown to have been deliberately and consciously adopted to ensure execution without risk to the assailants. The acts of knocking down the victim, striking him, and throwing him into the water constituted one continuous attack, and treachery must precede the commencement of the attack to qualify the crime. The means employed did not positively and clearly show a treacherous design.

Regarding aggravating circumstances:
1. Nocturnity was not aggravating as there was no evidence the defendants purposely sought the cover of nighttime to commit the crime.
2. Uninhabited place was not present, as the crime occurred within 90 yards of inhabited houses, which did not meet the legal definition of an uninhabited place (where houses are absent or scattered at great distances).

With no qualifying or aggravating circumstances, the penalty for homicide was imposed in its medium degree. Each defendant was sentenced to fourteen years, eight months, and one day of reclusion temporal, ordered to indemnify the heirs of the deceased jointly and severally in the amount of P1,000, and to pay the accessory penalties and costs.