G.R. No. 228945 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. HESSON CALLAO Y MARCELINO AND JUNELLO AMAD, ACCUSED, HESSON CALLAO Y MARCELINO, ACCUSED-.DECISION - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE , premises considered, the court finds accused HESSON CALLAO guilty beyond reasonable doubt as principal for the crime of Murder as defined and penalized under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code and is accordingly sentenced to Reclusion Perpetua and to pay the cost. Accused is also ordered to pay the amount of P15,000.00 as funeral expenses; P50,000.00 for loss of life and P50,000.00 [as] moral damages. Considering that accused JUNELLO AMAD has remained at large[,] send this case as to him to the ARCHIVES and let there be issued an Alias Warrant of Arrest addressed to the Chief of Police, PNP, Tayasan, Negros Oriental; Provincial Director, PNP, Agan-an, Sibulan, Negros Oriental and to the Chief, NBI of Dumaguete, Bacolod, Cebu and Manila for the arrest of the said JUNELLO AMAD in the event he is sighted. SO PROMULGATED in open Court this 26 th day of January 2015 at Bais City, Philippines. [43] (Italics in the original) Hesson appealed to the CA via Notice of Appeal . [44] Hesson filed his Brief [45] dated August 26, 2015, while the People, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), filed its Brief [46] dated January 22, 2016. In a Resolution [47] dated June 15, 2016, the CA considered Hesson to have waived his right to file a Reply Brief. [48] Ruling of the CA In the assailed Decision, the CA affirmed the trial court's conviction with modification only as to the damages awarded, to wit: WHEREFORE , the instant appeal is DENIED . The assailed Judgment dated January 26, 2015 of Branch 45 of the Regional Trial Court of Bais City in Crim. Case No. 07-25-T is hereby AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION . Civil indemnity and moral damages awarded to the heirs of Fernando Adlawan are INCREASED to P75,000.00 each. Exemplary damages are also AWARDED in the amount of P30,000.00. The grant of funeral expenses in the amount of P15,000.00 is RETAINED . The aggregate amount of the monetary awards stated herein shall earn interest at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum from the finality of this Decision until the same is fully paid. [49] (Emphasis in the original) Hence, this Appeal. In lieu of filing supplemental briefs, Hesson and plaintiff-appellee filed separate Manifestations dated July 18, 2017 [50] and July 17, 2017, [51] respectively, foregoing their right to file the supplemental briefs and adopting the arguments in their respective Briefs filed before the CA. Issues In his Brief Hesson assigns the following errors: The trial court gravely erred in convicting the accused based solely on uncorroborated testimony of the witness; [52] The trial court gravely erred in making a finding of conspiracy to commit murder without proving the elements thereof beyond reasonable doubt; [53] and The trial court inadvertently erred in failing to rule that the crime committed was not murder but an impossible crime. [54] The Court's Ruling The Appeal is totally without merit. The issues, being interrelated, shall be jointly discussed below. The evidence s