G.R. No. 42154 ; April 22, 1935
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ILDEFONSO D. YAP, defendant-appellant.

FACTS

The defendant, Ildefonso D. Yap, was convicted of homicide for shooting and killing Hernan Donoso Cortes, the chief of the legal department of H.E. Heacock & Company. The killing occurred on October 7, 1933, in Cortes’s office. Yap admitted the killing but claimed he acted in self-defense. The dispute arose from a debt Yap owed to Heacock Co., for which the company had secured judgments and, through Cortes and a deputy sheriff, levied upon Yap’s bank deposits. Evidence showed that on the day of the shooting, Yap had a heated telephone conversation with Cortes, threatening Cortes’s means of livelihood. Cortes then armed himself with a revolver. Later, Yap and his brother went to Cortes’s office. According to eyewitness employees present, after a brief conversation, Yap fired the first shot while Cortes was seated. Multiple shots followed, killing Cortes, who was found with a revolver in his hand. Yap sustained a gunshot wound. The trial court rejected Yap’s claim of self-defense.

ISSUE

Whether the defendant acted in self-defense, thereby exempting him from criminal liability for the killing of Hernan Donoso Cortes.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s decision, finding the defendant guilty of homicide. The evidence did not sustain the claim of self-defense. The Court held that Yap was the aggressor, noting the threatening telephone call he made prior to the meeting and the eyewitness accounts that he fired the first shot while Cortes was seated. The Court found the assigned errors, which challenged the trial court’s factual findings and credibility assessments, to be devoid of merit. It also condemned the appellant’s attorneys for making improper statements in their brief impugning the motives of the trial judge and prosecutors. The indeterminate sentence imposed by the trial court was affirmed.

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