Untruthful defense

This is another unique case involving husband and wife. Here the wife was accused of parricide for killing her husband and admitted it after allegedly being repeatedly maltreated that caused her to be possessed by an evil spirit. The main issue resolved here is whether such maltreatment and the supposed belief that the victim is an evil spirit who threatened to kill her, can be considered self-defense that justifies her crime.

Bella was married to Jimmy and the couple had two children, Cely, 20, and Gary, 15. The couple’s marital relationship, however, was quite shaky because Jimmy had been squandering the family funds in gambling and in keeping a paramour, Nina. Jimmy also had a drinking habit that sometimes led him to violently maltreat Bella when they quarreled, which was very often.

The killing happened one evening in the conjugal home when Jimmy arrived from a tuba drinking spree. Jimmy and Bella had a bitter discussion about all their lands he sold, with the proceeds of sales lost through gambling and in keeping a mistress. Thereafter Jimmy went to sleep in one small room without having dinner, while Bella and the children slept in another room.

At about 10 p.m., Bella woke up her daughter Cely and told her that her father was dead. Bella told Cely that she killed Jimmy because he threatened to kill her. Upon the prodding of Bella, Cely helped her mother carry the corpse to a nearby creek.

The following day at about noon the chief of police of the town proceeded to the barrio upon learning of the dead body in the creek, accompanied by the justice of the peace and the sanitary inspector. They found Jimmy’s corpse in the creek and the health officer examined it. After conferring with Cely, the chief of police arrested Bella, who made and signed a statement before him. The next day the chief of police accompanied Bella to the justice of the peace, who asked Bella if she signed her statement freely and voluntarily. After Bella swore to the truth of her statement in the presence of two witnesses, the justice of the peace authenticated it.

After preliminary investigation, Bella was charged with the crime of parricide before the Regional Trial Court. The prosecution presented as witnesses Bella’s daughter Cely, the chief of police, the justice of the peace who all reiterated and confirmed what happened as contained in Bella’s statement marked as exhibit “C,” and the health officer who testified that Jimmy died of internal hemorrhage, brain concussion and compression as a result of blows of a hard instrument which crushed the nasal bone, the molar cheek and jaw bones, smashed the dental arches leaving him toothless.

Bella declared in court that at about 6 p.m., Jimmy arrived from a drinking spree, very drunk; that upon entering, he immediately boxed her in the stomach, causing her to faint; that when she regained consciousness, she asked Jimmy why he boxed her and Jimmy replied that if she will resist, he will do it again. So she just kept quiet and prepared supper. While eating supper, Jimmy threw away the rice and did not eat but went to look for tobacco. When he returned, he boxed her again because she was always jealous of his mistress and mad at him for having sold all their lands and losing the proceeds through gambling.

While they were all sleeping, she got the hammer and chisel and struck him in the head and face until he was dead. She wrapped Jimmy’s body with a mat and asked her daughter Cely to help her bring the body to the nearby creek. After initially refusing, Cely relented upon being threatened.

Bella said she killed Jimmy because he maltreated her and thus felt that an evil spirit had possessed her so she lost control of herself. She awoke later when a man was supposedly strangulating her, prompting her to get a piece of wood and gave the man two blows in the face, whom she found to her amazement to be Jimmy when she lighted a lamp.

But the trial court rejected Bella’s defense and convicted her of parricide, sentencing her to life imprisonment. This decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court, which said that her explanation is non-acceptable for the following reasons: the 11 incised wounds on the head of Jimmy could not have been the effect of two strokes with a blunt instrument. In her signed confession before the police chief, she never mentioned the piece of wood and she already confessed her guilt during the preliminary investigation. If the facts she related really happened, she should have told them to her children, who would undoubtedly have absolved her but did not. In fact, Cely even testified against her and was resentful of her.

The court said that Exhibit “C” reflected the true facts because they were uttered at a time when she was overwhelmed by remorse and had not yet the opportunity to think about the excuse of self-preservation. So she is really guilty even if her husband may have been unworthy, a rascal and a bully, which is not even a mitigating circumstance. She should thus be sentenced to life imprisonment pursuant to Article 246 of the Revised Penal Code.

One justice, however, said that the president should give her Executive Clemency (People vs. Canja, G.R. L-2800, May 30, 1950).

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