G.R. No. 127818 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES., VS. GUILLERMO NEPOMUCENO, JR, ACCUSED- .

Ruling

Wherefore, the court hereby renders judgment finding the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of parricide as defined and penalized under Article 246 of the Revised Penal Code as amended by Republic Act No. 7659 for the death of Grace Nepomuceno and hereby sentences him to suffer imprisonment of Forty (40) years of reclusion perpetua and to pay the heirs of the deceased the sum of P50,000.00 with costs against him. Pursuant to Article 921, paragraph (1) of the Civil Code, the court declares the accused ineligible to inherit from his wife. The entire estate should go to his son, Giordan Benitez Nepomuceno. (pp. 20-21, Rollo) The Information against accused-appellant charged: That on or about May 2, 1994, in the City of Manila, Philippines, the said accused, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously, with intent to kill and with treachery and evident premeditation, attack, assault and use personal violence upon the person of one GRACE NEPOMUCENO Y BENITEZ, his wife, with whom he was married in lawful wedlock, by then and there shooting her with a gun of unknown caliber hitting her on the left hip, thereby inflicting upon the said GRACE NEPOMUCENO Y BENITEZ gunshot wound which was necessarily fatal and which was the direct and immediate cause of her death thereafter. (p. 5, Rollo) Upon arraignment, accused-appellant, entered a plea of not guilty and trial ensued in due course. Thereafter, the trial court rendered the judgment of conviction now on appeal. The prosecution presented seven witnesses, namely, Eden Ontog, SPO2 Rodolfo Rival, Forensic Chemist Mary Ann Aranas, Medico-Legal Examiner Floresto Arizala, Monserrat De Leon, Ballistic Expert Isabelo Silvestre, Jr. and Romeo Pabalan. Eden Ontog declared that on May 2, 1994, she was the housemaid of the spouses Guillermo Nepomuceno, Jr. and Grace Nepomuceno, having started as such since May 31, 1993. At around 11 o'clock on the evening of May 2, 1994, accused-appellant, who was drunk, arrived and went to their bedroom where Eden and her ward Giordan the one-year old son of the couple, were sleeping. She was awakened by the loud voices of the spouses who were arguing. She saw accused-appellant get a gun from a drawer, so she went out of the room because of fear. After a few moments and while she was outside the room, she heard Grace Nepomuceno say: "Sige patayin mo ako, patayin mo na kami ng anak ko." Then Eden heard a gunshot. She was so scared that she went out of the house, reaching the door of the house of Barangay Chairman Congen Leonardo which is 5 meters away. After ten minutes, she saw accused-appellant coming out of the room. He told her to get a taxi so he could bring the wounded Grace to the hospital. She was left behind in their room to take care of baby Giordan. She tried to call up Monserrat de Leon, the sister of Grace in Pasig to inform her of the incident, but she could not get any connection (tsn, July 27, 1994, pp. 4-17; 24-42). Mary Ann T. Aranas, a c