People v. Román Morales
People v. Román Morales
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of Court.
Elín Román Morales was charged by the District Attorney of Bayamón with the Grime of murder in the first degree for having caused the death of Harry Maldonado, with malice aforethought and with a fixed and deliberate intent to kill, by firing shots with a pistol that caused a bullet wound as a result of which Maldonado died on August 9,1947. The case was tried by a jury who returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, and Morales was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Morales appealed to this Court and in his brief alleges that the lower court committed error (1) in permitting the district attorney to introduce evidence on the death of Eugenio Sánchez Santos, which occurred, according to him, after the incident of the death of Harry Maldonado; (2) in dismissing a motion for mistrial based on the fact that the court had admitted said evidence; and (3) that the verdict is contrary to the evidence and to the law inasmuch as neither deliberation, nor even premeditation, was proved.
The evidence presented by the prosecution disclosed that on August 9, 1947, between 9 and 10 o’clock in the
The evidence of the defendant tended to show that after an argument with the owner of the restaurant over payment for beer defendant met his brother-in-law Vicente Torres and got into the truck of the latter with the intention of leaving; that policeman Maldonado then came to the truck and rebuked him violently and tried to get him out by force in order to arrest him; that at that moment policeman Maldonado drew his revolver and that defendant, in self-defense, fired at the policeman.
The lower court did not commit error in allowing the evidence on the shots fired by defendant at Eugenio Sánchez Santos whom shortly before he had attacked with his fists and with whom he had a quarrel which ended in an attempted assault with a knife with which he armed himself in said establishment during the quarrel. Although defendant was on trial for the death of policeman Maldonado and had pleaded guilty of murder in the second degree for the death of Sánchez, yet the facts as a whole form a single transaction. The death of policeman Maldonado is so related to that of Sánchez and was perpetrated so.closely before the latter’s at the time defendant was carrying out his manifest purpose of. killing Sánchez with the pistol with which he was armed, that the transaction consists of a consecutive series of facts so related to each other that the acts of defendant immediately after fifing at policeman Maldonado, going to the restaurant after Sánchez and firing at him without any provocation, are inseparable circumstances of the death of Maldonado and tend to establish the state of mind of the defendant and his criminal intent at the time, inasmuch as since it was his purpose — in pursuance of which he returned to the place of the occurrence armed with a pistol — to kill Sánchez, it’was necessary for him to eliminate the' one obstacle in his way: policeman Maldonado, who by his interven
The third error was not committed either. The evidence justifies the verdict of murder in the first degree. The elements of premeditation and deliberation, essential to a conviction of murder in the first degree, may be inferred from the manner in which a deadly weapon is used or perhaps from the mere use thereof, People v. Alegría, 36 P.R.R. 355; as well as from the other circumstances and relation of the parties, and from the acts and conduct of the defendant. People v. Vaiz (1942), 55 C. A. 2d 714, 131 P. 2d 407; People v. Smith, 15 Cal. 2d 640, 104 P. 2d 510. They depend upon the circumstances of the case and the act of aiming and discharging a firearm at a person and killing him is sufficient to show premeditation and*deliberation, notwithstanding the suddenness with which the act may have been committed. People v. Ortiz et al., 18 P.R.R. 803. The law does not require a definite lapse of time for the deliberation and premeditation essential to a conviction of murder in the first degree. People v. Patubo, 9 Cal. 2d 537, 71 P. 2d 270, 113 A.L.R. 1303. They may exist and be conceived at the same instance of the commission of the attack. Aldridge v. United States (1937), 47 F. 2d 407, 60 App. D. C. 45, reversed on other grounds in 283 U. S. 308, 75 L. Ed. 1054; Bostic v. United States (1937), 94 F. 2d 636, certiorari denied in 303 U. S. 635, 82 L. Ed. 1095; People v. Hashaway (1945), 67 Cal. App. 2d 554, 155 P. 2d 101. In the case at bar, the conclusion of the jury is justified by all the circumstances
Under these circumstances, the verdict of murder in the first degree shall not be disturbed on appeal.
The judgment will be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.