People vs Guardiano Marquez

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People vs Guardiano Marquez
G.R. No. 31268
July 31, 1929

Facts:

The defendant admits that he killed his wife, Oliva Sumampong; but he alleges that he caught her in the act of adultery, and so took her life.

Issue:

W/O the accused is committed a crime under Articles 246 or 247 of the RPC?

Held:

This is a case of parricide which the trial court considered sufficiently proven against the herein appellant, who was sentenced, in consequence, to life imprisonment, the accessories of law, and a P1,000 indemnify to the heirs of the deceased, with costs.

But the court considered two mitigating circumstances of immediate provocation, and passion and obfuscation (article 9, paragraphs 4 and 7, Penal Code) to have been established. And by virtue of these two circumstances, following rule 5 of article 81 of the Penal Code, as amended by Act No. 2298, and there was no aggravating circumstance, the penalty next lower to that prescribed by law shall be imposed.

Once the appellant had admitted that it was he who killed his wife, it was incumbent upon him to completely prove his defense, which is, that he found her in the act of adultery. The testimony he gave during the hearing of this case in the trial court, noticeably weakened by his statements before the justice of the peace, cannot be considered sufficient proof of the justification he alleges, and so the fact remains that he took his wife's life without having proven sufficient justification.