People v. Negrón Rodríguez
People v. Negrón Rodríguez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
On December 6, 1950, the Prosecuting Attorney of the former District Court of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Section, filed an information against José Antonio Negrón Rodríguez for the crime of attempted arson in the second degree (§ 50 in relation with § § 398 and 405 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico), committed in the following manner: because “the aforesaid accused, José Antonio Negrón Rodríguez, prior to the filing of this information, that is, on or about the night of October SI and the dawn of November 1,1950, and in Naran-jito, Puerto Rico, which is a part of the Bayamón Section of the District Court of Puerto Rico, wilfully, unlawfully, with criminal intent and maliciously, attempted to set fire to the building of the Municipal Hospital of Naranjito, which belongs to the municipality of Naranjito, Puerto Rico, with the intention of destroying that building.”
The trial was held on April 11, 1951, and after the Court heard the corresponding testimony it found defendant guilty of the crime of attempted arson in the second degree. Defendant requested that judgment be rendered forthwith and the court sentenced him to serve a term of one to five years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary at hard labor. Feeling aggrieved by that judgment defendant appealed to this Court and after the transcript of the evidence was filed, but while defendant’s brief was pending, he desisted from said appeal.
On the same December 6, 1950, the Prosecuting Attorney of the former District Court of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Section, filed another information against José Antonio Negrón Rodríguez, Ramón Luis Serrano Torres, Feliciano Pérez Rivera, Alejandro Figueroa Ríos, Inocencio Morales Padilla, Elmer Rivera Nieves, Antonio Nieves Avilés and Eulogio Morales Nieves, for a violation of § 12 of Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934, (Sess. Laws, p. 458), as amended by Act No. 66 of May 9, 1936 (Sess. Laws, p. 342), committed as follows: “the aforesaid defendants . . . prior to the filing
The hearing of this case was held on February 23, 195Í, before a court without a jury. After receiving the evidence for the prosecution, defendant having failed to introduce any evidence on his behalf, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to serve 30 months’ imprisonment in the District Jail of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Feeling aggrieved by that judgment José Antonio Negrón Rodríguez appealed to this Court, and assigned the following error: the lower court committed serious error of law in finding the accused guilty of an alleged violation of § 12 of the Explosives Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934, as amended, and in sentencing him to serve thirty months’ imprisonment in jail.
On the same December 6, 1950, the Prosecuting Attorney of the former District Court of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Section, filed another information against José Antonio Negrón Rodríguez, for another violation of § 12 of Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934, as amended by Act No. 66 of May 9, 1936, committed in the following way: “the aforesaid accused, José Antonio Negrón Rodríguez prior to the date of the filing of this complaint, that is, about October 31 to November 1, 1950, in the ward Higuillar of Naranjito, Puerto Rico, which is a part of the Bayamón Section of the District Court of Puerto Rico, unlawfully, wilfully and criminally, and with intent to use the same for the purpose of inflicting bodily
The trial was held on the same February 23, 1951, before a court without a jury. After receiving the evidence for the prosecution, the defendant having failed to introduce any evidence on his behalf, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to serve five years’ imprisonment in jail. Feeling aggrieved by said judgment, José Antonio Negrón Rodriguez appealed to this Court, and upon both cases referring to the possession of dynamite for unlawful purposes being consolidated, he assigned for both causes the same single error to which we have previously referred.
The principal reason set forth by appellant’s attorney in his brief, is the following: “that although the prosecuting attorney may file informations or separate complaints for each fact or series of facts which establish by themselves the violation of a statute, he can not do so when that fact or series of facts are within a major offense as essence or substance thereof or as its controlling element,” and the district attorney has proceeded to prosecute for the major offense. In other words, since José Antonio Negrón Rodrí-guez was prosecuted and sentenced for the crime of attempted arson in the second degree, to serve a term of from one to five years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary, he can not be prosecuted and sentenced to serve a term of thirty months’ imprisonment in jail for the offense of possessing dynamite with the intention of inflicting bodily injury or of destroying material property.
The statute involved in this case is § 50 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico, which provides: “Every person who attempts to commit any crime but fails, or is prevented or intercepted in the perpetration thereof, is punishable, where no provision is made by law for the punishment of such attempts, as follows: (1) If the offense so attempted
We have carefully examined the transcript of the evidence, both in the appeal abandoned by the defendant, which refers to the sentence for attempted arson in the second degree, as well as in the joint appeal which refers to the two sentences for violation of § 12 of Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934, as amended, and both are sufficient in law to support the three sentences imposed on the accused. As to the attempted arson in the second degree, committed some time between October 31, 1950 and November 1, 1950, the same
It is with regard to this second case of violation of § 12 of Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934, committed between the night of October 31 and the morning of November 1, 1950, that we may consider whether the offense of possessing dynamite for unlawful means was merged within the major offense of attempted arson in the second degree. The first fact we must establish is whether the minor offense, in this case the violation of § 12 of Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934, is necessarily an ingredient, that is, if it is by its nature indivisible from the major offense, in this case, the attempted arson in the second degree.
A minor offense by its nature can be included within a major one when the sole difference existing between one and the other is the aggravation determined by law, that is, the first offense is an ingredient of the other which is supposed to include it. The commentator Francis Wharton, 1 Wharton’s Criminal Law 50, Co-operative Publishing Company of 1932, takes as example the different phases of battery which run from assault to murder, in order to show the development of the process of aggravation: “Questions frequently
As may be noted, in order to produce a merger of a minor offense within a major offense, both must be centered around a fact pertaining to a common offense susceptible of being aggravated or lessened according to the concurrence of particular circumstances. If it is a question of different facts pertaining to an offense which can exist independently of the common fact, then we are facing an offense which is susceptible of being divided into two or more offenses.
It is not difficult to conclude that the possession of dynamite for unlawful purposes is not included by its intrinsic nature in the crime of arson. Each one may be produced independently of the other. Neither one constitutes an aggravation or a necessary ingredient of the other. As a matter of fact the dynamite in this case is nothing more than an instrument for the commission of a crime, the same
Although what is expressly alleged is the existence of a merger of a minor offense within a major offense, defendant’s attorney tries to convince us, in the course of his arguments, that we are dealing with a continuing offense. Construing Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 (Spec. Sess. Laws, p. 170) we define the continuing offense as “a transaction or a series of acts set on foot by a single impulse and operated by an uninterrupted force no matter how long a time it may take.” People v. Burgos, 75 P.R.R. 517, 533, 534, (Pérez Pimentel) (1953) where it is held that in cases of continuing offenses,, what is punished is the course of conduct and not the specific acts committed in obedience to that course of conduct. What the State attempted in the case of Burgos was to punish separately the same act committed by the same person on different dates, for the purpose of organizing a group of persons and participating in an assembly as part of a separatist movement, intending to achieve the separation of Puerto Rico from the United States by force and violence, culminating in a rebellion against the established government. Since it dealt with an offense of preaching, it is unquestionable that each and every one of the actions of the accused had to be analyzed in order to see whether all or a part of them was included within the practice proscribed by the law; see also People v. Reynolds, ante, p. 421.
The judgment appealed from will be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.