People v. Gonzalo
People v. Gonzalo
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
José Tiburcio Gonzalo and Guillermo G. Gonzalo were accused of murder in the second degr.ee in having on the 6th of January, 1931, assaulted and battered Pablo Sardán Silva with sharp weapons causing various wounds from which the latter died on the 11th of February, 1931.
When the case was called the defendants asked for separate trials and the court acceded to the request. This is an appeal of Guillermo G. Gonzalo from a judgment for voluntary manslaughter wherein he was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary at hard labor.
There are three assignments of error. The first and third are discussed together by the appellant and relate to questions of fact; in other words, the appellant maintains that the verdict is against the evidence.
So far as the first assignment of error relates to a motion in arrest of judgment, we are of the opinion that the appellant was mistaken in filing it, inasmuch as matters of fact not already of record can not be reached by a motion in arrest of judgment.
In attacking the verdict the appellant presents two aspects. The first is that there was not sufficient evidence to' show that Guillermo G. Gonzalo inflicted the blow that caused the death of Pablo Sardán Silva. The Government presented two witnesses to prove that Guillermo G. Gonzalo did in fact inflict a wound in the breast of the deceased which Dr. de Jesús thought was sufficient to cause the death. Briefly, José Tiburcio Gonzalo, son of the appellant, struck Pablo Sardán Silva. Thereafter José Tiburcio Gonzalo went to a neighboring restaurant and obtained a short machete,
Even if the witnesses had been less explicit and had not seen the .blow actually inflicted, when the testimony tended to show the Pablo Sardán Silva died from the wounds inflicted on him on the sixth day of January, 1931, and it was shown that the defendant and his son were there attacking Kim, this was all circumstantial evidence giving the jury the right to believe that the death was caused by the blow from the front and that the appellant was the person who delivered it.
Furthermore, both the appellant and his son were aiding and abetting each other in the events that led up to the death of Silva and under Section 36 of the Criminal Code either of them might be considered as a principal.
There was also a motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence. This evidence was contradicted by the Fiscal and the court had a right to decide the conflict and we find no error.
The judgment appealed from should be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.