Only incidental

If a victim is taken and brought against his will to another place merely to facilitate his killing, is the crime committed kidnapping with murder or murder only? This is answered in this case of Mila.

Mila was an attractive married woman who had two other lovers. One of them was Max, a businessman who used to lend her and her husband money. When Max lent money to her husband enabling the latter to leave the country without her knowledge, she got mad at Max and plotted to kill him in connivance with her other lover Tony, who was jealous of Max.

They carried out their plot by inviting Max to a bar-restaurant. Mila also invited another friend, Romy, and told him that she would settle her debt to Max and then deretsong dukot na rin sa kanya. Romy thought that Mila was only joking when she made that comment.

Max arrived past midnight and after talking to Mila for a while, the group headed for Max’s car, with Mila seating beside Max who was driving, as Tony and Romy took the back seat. Not long after, Tony pulled out a gun, pointed it at Max and ordered him to stop the car. Then Tony pulled him to the back seat as Mila also transferred to the back. They then tied Max’s hands behind his back and taped his mouth. Tony then ordered Romy to take over the wheel.

Romy tried to dissuade the two from pursuing their plan, to no avail. On Tony’s instruction, Romy drove to a secluded grassy place where Mila and Tony carried out their plot. Later on, Tony resurfaced with bloodied hands and the three headed back as Mila told Tony, “Honey, wala na tayong problema dahil siguradong patay na si Max sa dami ng saksak na nakuha niya.”

Then they proceeded to a drug store to clean their hands as Tony and Mila threw out Max’s attaché case after emptying and getting its contents. Thereafter, the three abandoned the car in a secluded place. Tony and Mila decided to also get some ransom money from Max’s family.

The following day Tony and Mila proceeded to Romy’s house and called the victim’s mother, demanding a P15-million ransom, later reduced to P 5 million with P1-million advance as the mother told them she could not afford the full amount. The ransom payment was not, however, consummated as the three sensed the presence of policemen. Tony and Mila just sold Max’s gun, watch and necklace and gave P7,000 to Romy as his share.

Seven months later, Romy surrendered to the NBI, followed by Tony, who admitted that he killed Max. Mila was thereafter arrested and the three were charged with kidnapping with murder. Later, Romy was discharged as a state witness.

After trial and mainly based on the testimony of Romy, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) found Tony and Mila guilty of kidnapping on the occasion of which the victim was killed and sentenced them to death. On review by the Court of Appeals (CA), the guilty verdict was affirmed but for the crime of kidnapping with murder. Was the CA correct?

The CA is correct in finding them guilty but not for the crime of kidnapping with murder. In special complex crime like that charged in this case, the prosecution must prove each of the component offenses with the same precision and beyond reasonable doubt, as if they were made the subject of separate complaints.

In this case, kidnapping was not sufficiently proven. Although Tony and Mila bound and gagged Max and brought him to the grassy place against his will, they did all these acts to facilitate the killing, not to detain or confine him. Their intention from the beginning was to kill Max, as confirmed by their conversation heard by Romy in the car which he narrated to the court.

The subsequent demand for ransom was an afterthought, which did not qualify their prior acts as kidnapping. Where the taking of the victim was incidental to the basic purpose to kill, the crime is only murder and this is true even if before the killing, the victim was taken from one place to another. The fact alone that ransom money is demanded would not per se convert the act of preventing the liberty of movement of the victim into the crime of kidnapping. Hence, Tony and Mila are guilty of murder only because of the aggravating circumstance of use of motor vehicle. So they were sentenced to reclusion perpetua (People vs. Estacio and Ang, G.R. 171655, July 22, 2009)