People vs. Piedad

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs. 
NIEL PIEDAD y CONSOLACION, LITO GARCIA y FRANCISCO and RICHARD PALMA y IDER, accused.
NIEL PIEDAD y CONSOLACION and LITO GARCIA y FRANCISCO, Accused-Appellants.

G. R. No. 131923
December 5, 2002

Facts:

On the night of April 10, 1996, victim Mateo Lactawan, and his friend Andrew were drinking beer when he got involved in a fist fight with other people drinking alcohol in the nearby store. That was when Luz, Mateo’s wife arrived in the scene of the crime and saw that a group of men were attacking his husband. Among the other aggressors who continuedly boxed Mateo who’s already lying on the ground, Luz saw Niel struck Mateo on the head with a stone, and Lito stabbed Mateo on the back, thereby inflicting traumatic head injuries and a stab wound which eventually led to Mateo’s death. Niel Piedad claims that the attack on the victim was made upon an impulse of the moment and was not the product of deliberate intent; while Lito Garcia contends that treachery cannot be appreciated inasmuch as the attack was preceded by a quarrel and heated discussion.

Accused Niel Piedad, Lito Garcia and Richard Palma were arrested and charged with the crime of murder for feloniously stabbing to death Mateo Lactawan on April 10, 1996. Accused denied the charges against them, but the trial court gave credence to the prosecution’s version of the incident and eventually convicted accused Niel Piedad and Lito Garcia of the crime charged and sentenced them to reclusion perpetua. However, accused Richard Palma was acquitted by the trial court on the ground of reasonable doubt.

Hence, this appeal. Accused-appellants questioned their conviction arguing that that prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. They assailed, among others, the credibility of the prosecution witnesses, Luz Lactawan, widow of the victim, and Fidel Piquero.

Issue:

Whether or not treachery must be appreciated as an aggravating circumstance?

Held:

Yes. There is treachery when the offender commits any of the crimes against persons, employing means, methods or forms in the execution thereof which tend directly and especially to ensure its execution, without risk to himself arising from any defense which the offended party might make. For treachery to be appreciated, the prosecution must prove: a) that at the time of the attack, the victim was not in a position to defend himself, and b) that the offender consciously adopted the particular means, method or form of attack employed by him.

The essence of treachery is a deliberate and sudden attack, affording the hapless, unarmed and unsuspecting victim no chance to resist or to escape. While it is true that the victim herein may have been warned of a possible danger to his person, since the victim and his companion headed towards their residence when they saw the group of accused-appellants coming back for them after an earlier quarrel just minutes before, in treachery, what is decisive is that the attack was executed in such a manner as to make it impossible for the victim to retaliate.

In the case at bar, Mateo did not have any chance of defending himself from the concerted assault of his aggressors, even if he was forewarned of the attack. Mateo was obviously overpowered and helpless when accused-appellants’ group numbering around eight, ganged up and mauled him. More importantly, Mateo could not have actually anticipated the sudden landing of a large concrete stone on his head. The stone was thus treacherously struck. Neither could the victim have been aware that Lito came up beside him to stab his back as persons were beating him from every direction. Lito’s act of stabbing the victim with a knife, inflicting a 15-centimeter-deep wound shows deliberate intent of using a particular means of attack. Considering the location of the injuries sustained by the victim and the absence of defense wounds, Mateo clearly had no chance to defend himself. In view of the foregoing, treachery was correctly appreciated by the trial court.

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