People v. Negrón
People v. Negrón
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Andrés Negrón was found guilty by the District Court of Bayamón of the crime of adulterating milk, and he appeals from the judgment which sentenced him to pay a $30 fine and the costs; and alleges that the lower court committed error in appraising the evidence and that it acted moved by bias, prejudice and partiality.
We must examine, then, the evidence presented, to determine if it justifies the conclusion arrived at by the trial court.
The district attorney offered the testimony of Leopoldo Romani and José Miranda Alvarez, health inspectors, and
The health inspector Miranda testified substantially the same as the former witness, except that, on cross-examination, he denied that a boy named Rubén Torres entered the stall of the defendant and emptied the milk that he carried in a can.
The chemist Modesto Luzunaris testified that he analyzed the sample of milk taken from the defendant; that he found it to be adulterated with 15 per cent of water artificially added.
The evidence for the defendant consisted of the testimony of the witnesses Prudencio Torres, Ramón Barreto, and that of the defendant himself.
Prudencio Torres testified that he devotes himself to the sale of milk in the town of Vega Baja; that he buys milk
Ramón Barreto testified that he was the watchman of the Vega Baja reservoir; that the day of the events he went at about seven o’clock in the morning to thp stall of the defendant to buy one quart of milk and there was no milk; that he was talking to the defendant Negron when he saw Torres apparently running away and behind him the health inspectors; that the boy entered the stall and emptied the milk immediately and the defendant told him that he did not want any more and at that moment the inspectors arrived and took the samples of the milk that had been poured by the boy in the container. On cross-examination by the district attorney he testified that Romani arrived almost simultaneously with Torres and to the questions of the judge he answered that the inspectors found the boy trembling inside the stall, but they did not intervene with him.
The defendant testified more or less the same that his two witnesses, alleging that the milk was owned by Torres and that he did not have any for sale, for it had been sold out.
We have read the transcript of the record and there is nothing in it that shows that the lower court, as the appellant holds, acted moved by bias, prejudice or partiality in the appraisal of the evidence of both parties. It believed
The appeal must be dismissed and the judgment appealed from affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.