G.R. No. 38996 ; October 31, 1933
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ANDRES R. SERRANO, defendant-appellant.

FACTS

The defendant-appellant, Andres R. Serrano, was convicted by the Court of First Instance of Ilocos Sur for the crime of homicide and sentenced to reclusion temporal. He appealed the judgment, assigning errors relating to the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence. The trial court relied heavily on the ante-mortem statement (dying declaration) of the deceased, Eduardo Savellano, and the testimony of Cirilo Serrano.

ISSUE

Whether the trial court erred in admitting the statement of the deceased as a dying declaration and in finding the evidence sufficient to convict the appellant.

RULING

The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. It held that the ante-mortem statement was properly admitted as a dying declaration. It is not necessary for the declarant to expressly state an expectation of death; it is sufficient that the circumstances inevitably lead to the conclusion that the declarant did not expect to survive the injury. The Court also found the defense theory—that the deceased might have been accidentally wounded by Cirilo Serrano—unsupported by the evidence. The evidence clearly pointed to the appellant as the perpetrator of the homicide.

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