People v. Lladó
People v. Lladó
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Jaime Lladó was indicted for the crime of murder and
Section 2 of the Act establishing the grand jury in Porto Rico, approved by our Legislature on June 18, 1919, provides that at each judicial term the court, whenever in its opinion the same may be necessary, shall order the drawing by lot of twenty names from the regular list of jurors for the formation of the grand jury to act during the term. Section 3 directs that the drawing of the grand jury shall be carried out in open court by the secretary of the court, after having cited the district attorney and the accused persons whose cases are to be. submitted to the grand jury for investigation, at least five days in advance of the date of the drawing. Sections 4 to 10 allow the accused persons so cited to challenge the entire panel or any individual jurors. Section 21 requires the district attorney to present to the grand jury all charges for crimes cognizable by them, in the form of indictments. Section 24 authorizes the grand jury to investigate any crime cognizable by them within the jurisdiction of the district court in which they are acting, although no charge may have been submitted to them by the district attorney. Section 25 prescribes that if in any case the grand jury find cause to indict, they shall endorse the indictment submitted by the district attorney as a true bill and that if no charge has been submitted by the district attorney, the grand jury shall direct him to prepare an indictment, and when so prepared it shall be properly endorsed. Section 52 provides that the indictment must be quashed by the court on motion of the accused made at the time of the arraignment if, among other cases,
The crime with which the appellant was charged was committed while the grand jury were in session. They were informed of it, investigated it and directed the district attorney to submit a form of indictment which they endorsed as a true bill. Therefore the crime was not investigated by the district attorney and for this reason the appellant was not cited for the drawing of the grand jury, and he alleges now that it would be unjust that in cases in which the district attorney submits the charges to the grand jury the accused should have a right to be cited and to make challenges, while when the grand jury make the investigation .without an indictment submitted by the district attorney they should have no such right, and that in order to avoid such injustice section 25 should be construed as meaning that when the investigation is made by the grand jury the result should be submitted to another grand jury after summoning the accused.
There is no doubt that in accordance with the statutes cited the accused persons whose cases the district attorney intends to submit to the grand ijury should be summoned for the drawing of the grand jury; that they may make challenges, and that the statute does not recognize that right when the investigation is made by the grand jury for the simple reason that when the drawing is made there is no charge against anybody who could be summoned. Perhaps this discrimination is not fair, but it infringes no constitutional right of the accused and the Legislature had the power to make that distinction. Before the Grand Jury Act was passed informations were filed in the courts on the sole investigation and opinion of the district attorney, and when the said law was enacted the right to challenge the grand jury was given only to the accused persons whose cases were submitted to the grand jury by the district attorney, but not to those whose cases were investigated by
Another ground of appeal is that the trial court erred in not allowing a government witness to answer a question put to him by counsel for the defendant. The witness had said repeatedly that he saw the defendant leading some cows along a road of a certain plantation and not along the Mabelén road and was asked the following question: “If a witness preceding you had said that the defendant was on the Mabelén road and not on the road of the plantation, would you agree with him?”
It is true that on cross-examination great latitude is allowed in order to test the credibility of the witness, but
It is also assigned as error that Miguel Martinez was permitted to testify as an expert on firearms without properly qualifying as such, and also that he was not allowed to answer a question as to whether the defendant showed ecchymosis.
Miguel Otero died as a result of a bullet wound in his head and he also had another in one thigh. At the autopsy a Smith revolver with an empty shell was found in a pocket of his trousers.
Miguel Martinez was the chief of police of the district in which the crime was committed and testified that the defendant voluntarily said to him that while he was pasturing some • cows on the Mabelén road belonging to the San Vicente Central, Miguel Otero arrived on horseback and then- turned as if to depart; that while the defendant had his hand in his pocket in which he had a pistol Otero jumped from the horse and caught hold of him behind his back, whereupon they engaged in a fight and fell to the ground, in which position he drew his pistol and shot his assailant; that then he succeeded in getting out of the ditch into which he had fallen and fired another shot at him, and that he tried to fire another shot but the pistol failed; that he and Otero had previously had some words because Otero did not want him to graze his cows at that place. The witness then testified that the defendant delivered the pistol to him; that it was of the ordinary kind that come through the mail, and that he passed it to the district attorney. He identified it at the trial.
We are of the opinion that in view of all of the testimony of the witness concerning his knowledge of revolvers and similar firearms he was qualified to testify as an expert that the shot fired from the Smith revolver found upon the person of the deceased was not recent but old. But even if this were not the case, it is of little importance in this case whether or not the shot was fired recently, for no witness testified at the trial that Otero fired any shot at the appellant.
The said witness also testified that the accused was very nervous when he arrested him; that his shirt was torn and his skin was visible; that he showed him the place and he pressed the skin between his fingers; that it reddened but was simply irritated and he saw no wound. The following cross-question was put to this witness and rejected by the court: “Have you seen many persons after a fight? Have you, in the, discharge of your duties as a policeman, interfered with people fighting? This bruise on the defendant * * *¶>> Tlie appellant alleges that this cross-question was pertinent because it was intended to show to the jury
We have to consider now only the last error assigned with reference to the charge of the court to the jury and to an instruction asked for by the defendant and refused by the court.
The only instruction objected to was that on reasonable doubt, as follows: “A reasonable doubt, is that condition of a case in which after a comparison and consideration of all of the evidence the jury are left in such a mental condition that they are not convinced that the charge is true.” This instruction perhaps might have been better, but we can not say that it warrants a reversal of the judgment and a new trial.
The instruction asked for by the defendant and refused by the court was as follows: “An assault with a deadly weapon raises the presumption of an intent to kill and justifies the assailed in using a deadly weapon for defending himself. ’ ’
It was not error for the court to refuse to give that instruction, inasmuch as the judge had fully charged the jury on self-defense and its necessary elements.
The judgment appealed from must be
Affirmed.
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