People v. Cebuldan
People v. Cebuldan
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The only question presented by this appeal is the sufficiency in law of the information. The appellant maintains that the information is defective because, purporting to be a prosecution for murder, it fails to state that the thing or being hilled was a human being.
The code requires a statement that the being slain was a human being, and that this is an essential averment is made clear by The People v. Lee Look, 137 Cal., 590, cited by the fiscal. The court, however, in that case goes on to say that it does not mean to hold that an indictment for murder cannot be sufficient without an express averment that the thing killed was a human being, although there seemingly was no good reason for leaving out that part of the statutory definí-
In the case before us the whole information is as follows:
“The fiscal presents an information against Arturo Cebuldán for the crime of murder in the first degree (felony), committed in the following manner:
“The said Arthur Cebuldán, in the city of Mayagüez, P. R., which forms a part of this judicial district, on or about April 27, 1911, then and there illegally, voluntarily, and with malice aforethought, and with firm and deliberate intent, and showing himself to have an abandoned and malignant heart, killed José Reyes Luciano by assaulting and battering him with a blunt instrument and causing three wounds in the skull which then and there caused his death.”
It therefore appears that the defendant was notified that he was charged with murder. He was also notified that the murdered being’s name was José Reyes Luciano, a name that is presumptively the name of a human being and with great improbability would be the name of a horse or other animal.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.