People v. Pacheco

59 P.R. 504
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 25, 1941
DocketNo. 8860
StatusPublished

This text of 59 P.R. 504 (People v. Pacheco) 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
People v. Pacheco, 59 P.R. 504 (prsupreme 1941).

Opinion

MR. Chibe Justice Del Toro

delivered tbe opinion of the court.

The District Attorney of San Juan filed an information against Miguel Pacheco charging him with the offense of [505]*505carrying a prohibited weapon in that, in the town of Rio Piedras, on October 14, 1940, he carried on his person unlawfully, wilfully, and maliciously, for purposes of offense and defense, a knife, a weapon with which bodily injury may be caused.

The defendant appeared at the trial represented by counsel. After the information had been read, the parties stipulated to submit the case on the evidence taken on the same day in another felony case; whereupon the court, in view of said evidence, found the defendant guilty of carrying a weapon, as charged, and sentenced him to two months in jail, without costs.

Peeling aggrieved by that judgment, the defendant appealed. He urges in three assignments of error,' that the court erred in rendering a judgment which does not conform to the law and is not supported by the evidence; in convicting him contrary to the verdict of the jury, in the felony case; and in acting moved by passion and prejudice.

Let us consider the first error assigned. The evidence for the prosecution which was introduced in the case of attempt to kill prosecuted against the same defendant, and on which was submitted the case herein of carrying a weapon, began with the testimony of Dr. Fernando Asencio, a physician-surgeon, who treated José Alvarez. According to the witness, he showed two wounds, a puncture wound on the left-hand side of the abdomen and another puncture wound on the intercostal space which penetrated the long tissues, which wounds might have been inflicted- “with an awl, a dagger, or a steel arm (arma blanca).” s

Alvarez, the next witness to testify, stated that on October 14, 1940, “I was coming up with some parcels . . . and several peoples were calling me names . . . Miguel Pacheco grabbed a banana and pushed it into my mouth . . . and then dealt me a blow with a pointed instrument here (showing the place) and another here (showing the place) and [506]*506some boys took me to the hospital.” Pacheco “held the knife in his hand.” He struck him “twice with the dagger, first in the abdomen and then in the ribs.” He stated that he was “almost blind from childhood, I can not see through one eye and very little through the other,” and that he used ‘‘ to sell my vegetables so that I need not beg from anybody. ’r He stated that he knew the defendant and, on cross-examination by the latter’s attorney as to whether he knew him because he heard him talking, he answered: “Yes, by his voice, and because he was holding the sharp instrument and squeezed my neck when pushing the banana.”

Clandina Alvarez stated: “I saw Celin stopping him (Alvarez) and they pushed each other and Pacheco fell on him and the three grappled with each other and Pach'eco wounded him,” with an unknown weapon.

Pablo Batista explains how Alvarez, “the blind man”, was teased by several boys and how the defendant intervened saying: “Blind man, take this, eat some banana, and the blind man threw it away as he was in a rage and then Celin (a boy who accompanied the defendant) seized the stones from his hands and Celin and the blind man grappled with each other and, as Celin was drunk, he fell down and Miguel Pacheco was further up and mixed with them in the fight and the blind man . . . came out with two wounds.” He did not see anybody holding any weapon.

Angela Nieves saw José Alvarez “who was coming from a shop with some little parcels” and Celin and Pacheco who “were drunk and calling José Alvarez names, and Pacheco saying: ‘Take this, Canela, eat some banana.’ Celin was the most drunk and José Alvarez stooped to pick up two stones to throw at them and Celin when holding him, as he was very drunk, fell to the ground and Pacheco then jumped and wounded him on the abdomen.” She was asked: “What kind of a weapon was it?” and she answered: “It must have been a knife.” A request to strike out the answer was made [507]*507and granted, and then she stated to the judge that she did not see the weapon.

Roberto Díaz witnesséd the banana incident and then the fight, bnt he does not know who wounded Alvarez.

Juan Cintron saw Pacheco with a friend, in an intoxicated condition, “and the blind man was carrying a parcel in his hands and Pacheco said to him: ‘eat some banana,’ and Pacheco was holding a knife and the other grabbed the blind man . . . and the blind man fell to the ground and on falling he seized a stone and Pacheco came up and struck him and wounded him here on the abdomen and on the back. ’ ’

The defense questioned him regarding the weapon and he answered, “He was holding a pocketknife. Q. — A knife or a ■pocketknife? A.- — It is the same thing.”

The evidence for the defense consisted of the testimony of the witness Cesáreo Suárez and that of the accused.

The witness testified:

“It so happened that on that day, at the corner of Palma and León Streets, I was playing domino with Miguel Angel and Ernesto Rodríguez and I noticed from the corner that there was a crowd and I said: ‘I wonder what happened?’ Then the three of us went there and saw Francisco Rodriguez, alias Celin, grappling with José Alvarez, the blind man, and it so happened that Miguel Pacheco intervened to stop the fight and when he did so there were present the father and the brother of José Alvarez, one holding a 10-inch knife and the other a pocketknife, and had it not been for Juana alias ‘La India’, that boy might have wounded Miguel Pacheco. That is what I saw.”

The defendant testified:

“I just had lunch and went there and met Celin and we were standing by a kiosk and the blind man was coming up holding some parcels and there were several boys throwing crushed oranges at him and calling him names and I bought a cent worth of bananas and cut one in two and gave some to the blind man who did not want to take it and he took and ate it and he had just eaten the banana, when Celin, who had been drinking, came up and said: ‘What is [508]*508tbe matter?’ ‘You are one,’ said tbe blind man, whereupon they grappled and fell to tbe ground there and I then intervened to pull them apart and I fell with them and was then able to pick the blind man up and went up with him and as I saw a brother of the blind man and also his father I went on my way and they then took the blind man to the hospital. . . . Judge. — Who wounded the blind man? A. — I did not see. Q. — -You do not know who wounded the blind man? A. — No, sir.”

The transcript ends as follows:

“Attorney for defendant: We rest. Judge: Is this your case? Attorney for defendant: Yes, sir. Judge: (He instructs the jury). (After the jury had retired to deliberate.) Will the ease of carrying .a weapon be submitted on the same evidence? Attorney for defendant: Yes, sir. Judge: The court will take the case under advisement. Attorney for defendant: We had in mind to file a motion for nonsuit in the ease of carrying a weapon, because it has not been established that the defendant was carrying any of the weapons specified in the law and we are going to move for a dismissal of the ■case of carrying a weapon for lack of evidence. Judge: The court will come to a decision after the jury have returned their verdict.

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59 P.R. 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pacheco-prsupreme-1941.