People v. Barrios Cano
People v. Barrios Cano
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
On September 27, 1949 the district attorney of San Juan accused Esteban Barrios Cano and Pedro Rivera Molina of violation of § 4 of the Bolita Act (No. 220 of May 15, 1948, p. 738). After a trial the court found them both guilty and sentenced them to one year and six months’' imprisonment in jail, respectively. Only Barrios Cano appealed. In his brief he merely maintains that the lower court erred in “overruling the motion requesting the dismissal of the prosecution against defendant-appellant Esteban Barrios Cano because he was not connected with the offense.” Although the error is expressed in those terms, the question which it raises is the illegality of the search with respect to the appellant herein.
The only witness introduced by the district attorney was Rufo Rosa González who briefly testified that he is a sergeant in the police force and that on August 23, 1949 about 11:30 p.m. he made a round on Carpenter Road near the place known as Bella Vista; that he stopped in front of the commercial establishment “La Cócora” and entered because it was rumored that they played the bolita game there; that he asked clerk Rivera Molina his permission to go into the back room asking the clerk to accompany him because he wished to search the place; that when he entered the back room he saw Rivera Molina trying to seize a bag which was on a shelf and that the witness told him then: “no, wait a moment, let me see that”; than then he seized the bag which contained certain typed lists and additions
Benito Colón Vázquez was another witness for the district attorney but he was not called as his witness. In view of this fact the defense used him as witness and his testimony, although slightly different from that of Sergeant Rosa Gon-zález, corroborates the latter on the point that the appellant was not in his establishment at the time the clerk authorized Rosa González to go into the back room and search it.
At the end of the testimony of Colón Vázquez the defense stated that it was definitively submitting the case because it was clear from the evidence that the search had been illegal. The point thus raised was repeatedly overruled by the lower court. Although ordinarily any objection to evidence illegally obtained must be raised prior to the trial, in cases like the one at bar said question could have been raised during the trial, because as we said in People v. Nieves, 67 P.R.R. 283, 285 “if while the evidence for the prosecution is being introduced, it is made to appear by the direct or cross examination - that the evidence was unlawfully obtained . . . the defendant may object to its admission, even if he knew before the trial that said evidence was intended to be presented against him. . .”
The Assistant Fiscal of this Court now maintains that since said question was originally raised after the prosecution finished introducing its evidence, it was equivalent to a motion for nonsuit which was waived by the defendant when he introduced the testimony of two witnesses in his behalf. We disagree. It was not really a motion for non-
Paragraph 13 of § 2 of our Organic Act
The judgment appealed from will be reversed and the defendant acquitted.
United States Code, title 48, chapter 4, § 737.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.