Cabrera Ramírez v. Delgado

88 P.R. 530
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJune 11, 1963
DocketNo. HC-63-4
StatusPublished

This text of 88 P.R. 530 (Cabrera Ramírez v. Delgado) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cabrera Ramírez v. Delgado, 88 P.R. 530 (prsupreme 1963).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

We consider this case as a petition of habeas corpus since the petitioner stated in his verified petition that he was being illegally deprived of his liberty, finder the custody of Gerardo Delgado, Warden of the State Penitentiary. We designated Mr. Victor Pons, Jr., to render him legal aid and said attorney has served him .satisfactorily.

[531]*531From the record it is evident that petitioner and another person name Enrique Díaz Cosme, were charged with burglary in the first degree and as subsequent offense in the former District Court of the judicial district of Guayama, on January 14, 1949. The information alleged the. previous conviction of petitioner Cabrera Ramirez for another offense of burglary in the first degree, by final judgment rendered January 24, 1940 also by the former District Court of Agua-dilla and another previous one, for the same offense, according to judgment of July 24, 1945 rendered also by the former District Court of Mayagiiez.

The trial was held by jury. It returned a verdict of guilty of burglary in the first degree. The trial judge declared him convicted of burglary in the first degree and as subsequent offense, and on April 12, 1949 he sentenced him to serve 18 to 30 years imprisonment at hard labor.

In his complementary petition before us, petitioner stated insofar as pertinent:

“3. Petitioner’s commitment in jail by virtue of said sentence is illegal, because the criminal prosecution against him in the aforesaid cause is void and the sentence imposed on him in said cause being likewise void, all for the following reasons:
“ (a) At the arraignment he was not advised that he had the right to plead guilty of the subsequent offense charged therein, nor was he asked specifically whether he pleaded guilty of the subsequent or whether he denied the charge.
“ (b) General plea of not guilty was stated in the records of the court and the question of the subsequent offense was permitted to go to the jury without giving petitioner the opportunity of making any allegation on that point, all of which besides constituting a grave error of law, violates the due process of law warranted by the Constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
“(c) Petitioner was sentenced for subsequent burglary in the first degree, when the verdict .returned by the jury acquitted him of the subsequent offense and found him guilty only of burglary in the first degree.
[532]*532“4. Petitioner, therefore, denies that the sentence that gives rise to this appeal is valid, and consequently denies that he is legally under the custody of Gerardo Delgado.”

The petition before us was heard on the 6th of last May, with the appearance of the parties and their attorneys, who proceeded to introduce the evidence. Finally the petition was submitted for decision, having previously attached to the records of the original record of criminal cause No. 15,914 prosecuted in the District Court of Guayama, the transcript of the stenographic notes taken during the trial held in that criminal prosecution on April 6, 1949, and the transcript of the hearing held before us on May 6, 1963.

The Solicitor General argued in writing the grounds of his opposition to the petition. Petitioner submitted it on the merits of the evidence in the record.

In People v. Aponte, 83 P.R.R. 491, 497 (Blanco Lugo) (1961), we stated the rule to be followed in relation to the allegation of subsequent offenses in trials by jury. Thus we stated:

“The local rule is to the effect that when the defendant admits the plea of subsequent offense, such fact should not be submitted to the jury for consideration and that, in such event, the proper thing to do is to deliver to the jury copy of the information from which every allegation of the previous offense has been stricken out, People v. Beltrán, 73 P.R.R. 466, 475 (1952); People v. González, 80 P.R.R. 203, 205 (1958). If the fact is set forth in a document, the jury must be furnished with a copy in which it is not mentioned; if it appears in oral statement, they must be absolutely prohibited. People v. Colón, 81 P.R.R. 321, 325, 327 (1959). This is so because in a criminal prosecution the defendant may be tried only for the offense charged in the information, and, therefore, evidence of other offenses committed by him is not admissible except when the previous offense (a) is a material fact to establish the commission of the crime charged; (b) when it is a part of the res gestae; (c) it shows motive, intent, premeditation, malice, or a common plan; or (d) forms part of the same transaction, People v. Archeval, 74 P.R.R. 478, 482 (1953).”

[533]*533As correctly stated by the Solicitor General, “there can hardly be another case in which a court may apply said rule as intelligently as was done in criminal prosecution attacked in the present petition.” As proof of this and to rebut the errors assigned, it suffices to copy here from pages 7-11 of the stenographic record of the original proceeding as follows:

“Hon. Judge:
The Court reconvenes.
“Marshal:
The Court reconvenes.
“Hon. Judge: Let defendant be arraigned. Defendants, please stand up.
(Clerk reads the information, but does not read the fact referring to the subsequent offense.)
Just a moment, counsellor, please come here. (They speak so I cannot hear them.)
“Mr. Pomales:
Your Honor, then continue the arraignment.
“Hon. Judge:
You do not understand?
(Judge speaks again to the counsellor in such a way I cannot hear.)
“Mr. Pomales:
Your Honor, we ask the Court to order the jury to withdraw to allege a question of law.
“Hon. Judge:
Yes, of course. The jury may withdraw to the jury room because counsel for the defense is going to raise a question that the jury must not hear.
“Marshal:
Please. (The jury withdraws.)
“Hon. Judge:
This is a case of subsequent burglary in the first degree . . .
“Mr. Pomales:
Subsequent.
[534]*534“Hon. Judge: .

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Bluebook (online)
88 P.R. 530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cabrera-ramirez-v-delgado-prsupreme-1963.