People v. Picó Vidal
People v. Picó Vidal
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Appellant having been convicted of driving a motor vehicle under the effects of intoxicating liquor was sentenced to pay a fine of $150 or to serve the subsequent subsidiary prison term, and also his driver’s licence was suspended for one year and four additional months for having refused to submit to the analyses of law.
In this appeal he assigns the commission of the following sole error:
“The evidence is insufficient to support a conviction inasmuch as it does not destroy the presumption of innocence nor establishes appellant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The only evidence for the prosecution consisted in the testimony of policeman José J. Maldonado, who in synthesis, and in everything essential for the discussion of the assigned error testified as follows: On December 12, 1968, he began to render services at eight o’clock at night. He saw defendant for the first time at about 2:55 on the morning of the 13th at the parking lot of the Caribe Hilton Hotel on an occasion when he was pursuing an automobile. At about 2:45, the witness was alone in a patrol car at sector 330 of Loiza Street.'
Cross-examined by the defense he testified:
“Q. Maldonado, then during all that time since you saw that automobile until arriving at the parking lot of the Caribe Hilton Hotel, what you saw was a vehicle with two heads ?
A. Yes, sir, heads, yes, sir.
Q. From the back?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And before you went into the parking lot you called the sergeant and informed him ?
A. Correct, at the moment when it went into the parking lot, as it does not have an exit, it is the only exit which it has.
Q. And then after you talked to the sergeant you entered?
A. From the radio itself you can talk.
Q. And when you arrived there, defendant and another person were outside the automobile ?
A. That is, when I was entering the parking lot, upon reaching the shack, that is there, the car was already parked.
Q. Were the lights off ?
A. And two persons were outside.
Q. Therefore, Maldonado, you cannot assure the court that this was the boy who was driving that automobile.
A. No, sir.” (Tr. Ev. 17,18.)
The only witness for the prosecution did not see defendant driving his vehicle. There is no direct evidence in the record which connects him with the commission of the offense. It is proper, therefore, to decide whether the indirect evidence establishes in this case defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The controverted fact, whether defendant was the person who was driving his automobile, could be established with indirect evidence by proving another different fact from which the controverted fact could be inferred. 32 L.P.R.A. § 1630. The inference is a deduction which the reason of the judge or jury makes from the facts proved, without an
To infer that defendant was the person who drove the vehicle, the trial court must have relied on the following findings: that two persons rode in the vehicle pursued by the police; that said vehicle was parked at the Caribe Hilton Hotel parking area; that when the police arrived at that place, the automobile was already parked, with the motor and lights cut off; that two persons were outside the automobile, one of them being defendant; that when the policeman approached the automobile, those two persons got into the same, defendant occupying the driver’s seat; that at the request of the policeman both persons alighted from the automobile; that at that moment the automobile’s motor was not in motion; that defendant informed the policeman that he was the owner of the vehicle; that that vehicle was the same that had been pursued by the police some moments before.
From these facts it can be inferred, at the most, that the two persons who were near the parked automobile were the persons who rode in said automobile while it was being pursued by the police. To infer that defendant was the driver of the vehicle, one can rely only on two findings, to wit: (1) that the vehicle was defendant’s property, and (2) that when
Although the circumstantial evidence is sufficient to support a conviction, said evidence should establish defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. People v. Rivera Antuna, supra. In the instant case it is not a proven fact, beyond a reasonable doubt, that defendant drove a motor vehicle under the effects of intoxicating liquor.
The judgment appealed from should be reversed and another rendered acquitting defendant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.