WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, the court finds accused Marieta Mendoza guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of robbery with homicide punishable from reclusion perpetua to death aggravated by the circumstances of dwelling, in disregard of the respect due to the offended party, abuse of superior strength, evident premeditation, nighttime and abuse of confidence without any mitigating circumstance, and hereby sentences her to the applicable penalty of death. Fortunately, for accused Marieta Mendoza, however, the death penalty has to be reduced to life imprisonment in accordance with Article III, Section 19(1) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Accused Marieta Mendoza shall indemnify the heirs of Mrs. Lourdes Fule the sum of P30,000 as civil liability for her death and shall also indemnify them the peso equivalent of the US$5,000, P70,000 and P1,500,000.00 representing the stolen items, without subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency and to pay the costs of the proceedings.

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The accused Marieta is married to accused Domingo Mendoza. Since two years prior to the incident in question, the former, was employed on an off-and-on basis with the family of the Fules until the time when the daughter of the family cook Nieves Garcia Santos left when accused Marieta became a permanent househelp. Accused Marieta's primary duty was to attend to the needs of Mrs. Lourdes Fule who was then 66 years old, sick with hypertension. To be able to promptly administer to the needs of her mistress, the accused Marieta was made to sleep immediately outside the door of her mistress so that medicines could be given to her as the need arises. The accused Roel Punzalan was one of the houseboys of the Fules since about 4 to 5 months prior to the incident while accused Jose Besida alias "Jose Vecidor" was hired two months prior, at the instance and effort of accused Domingo Mendoza. A week prior to the incident all the accused plotted to rob Mrs. Fule who had a collection of jewelries and certain amount of cash.

On 9 July 1985 accused Domingo Mendoza arrived at 9:00 a.m. and stayed at the servants' quarters of the Fule compound located at corner Del Pilar and Rizal Avenue, Alaminos, Laguna. He was seen in close huddle with the other said accused. He spent the night until the next day of July 10, 1985 (sic). After the master of the house, Judge Conrado Fule left for Manila at about 4:00 p.m. all the accused were seen to be in secret and close conversation. Accused Domingo Mendoza was heard to have uttered "Ituloy na natin wala si Judge Fule". Accused Domingo Mendoza left at 6:30 p.m. that day. At about 7:30 p.m. Gregorio Fule had supper at his mother's house while being served by Nieves Garcia Santos and accused Marieta. After eating, mother and son were talking about their health while the son was fixing the betamax unit. After fixing the betamax, the son, Gregorio Fule left his mother watching a betamax tape together with the accused Marieta, Roel Punzalan, Jose Besida, a child of Marieta and Nieves Garcia Santos. At about 11:30 p.m. of July 10, 1985, accused Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida went out of the house for their servants' quarters while the victim, Lourdes Fule and accused Marieta locked up all the doors to the house. At 12:30 a.m. of July 11, 1985 accused Marieta was seen at the door of the servant's quarters calling (sutsot) for Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida after which the three of the accused went up to the house. Accused Marieta Mendoza knocked on the door of the victim and woke her up on some pretext. When the door was opened by the victim, accused Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida went rushing in and inflicted the injuries and stab wounds on the victim. They put cloth on her mouth to prevent her from making an outcry. When the victim was still lying on her bed bleeding to death, the accused Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida ransacked her drawers and scooped up the jewelries and cash money. At this juncture, accused Domingo Mendoza was waiting in a parked jeep outside the Fule compound. While all these were going on accused Marieta did not do anything to help the victim. She did not also prevent the killing of the victim. When the crime was consummated, the accused Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida told accused Marieta that they would meet at Del Remedio, changed their bloodied clothes at the staircase and under the oliva (sic) tree on the ground of the Fule compound.

She "had been working as a housemaid of Mrs. Lourdes Fule for five (5) years at the time the incident happened although not on a continuous basis. There was (sic) times when she was borrowed by Mrs. Fule's daughter, Marilou. On the first week of July, 1985, she was with Marilou but on the second week thereof, she was with Mrs. Fule. On the night of July 10, 1985, after all the members of the household had taken their supper and after fixing the kitchen, Marieta joined Mrs. Fule in watching a television program together with two children, one of whom was her son. Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida also came and joined them. After a while, she noticed Jose Besida went to the kitchen and inside her room. She did not notice Roel Punzalan left (sic) the place where they were watching television. The doors were then all open including the door at the room of Mrs. Fule and the door at her room. They have finished watching television at around 11:00 o'clock in the evening of July 10, 1985 after which Mrs. Fule and she locked all the doors. She was the one who put up the mosquito net on the bed of Mrs. Fule and she did not notice anybody inside the room. She slept with her son outside the room of Mrs. Fule, around three meters from the door of Mrs. Fule's room outside of the white mark, shown in Exhibit "F-1". When lying down, the cabinet in her room was at her right side and so with the way leading to the comfort room. At her left side was the aparador and the room where rice and iron (sic) clothes are kept. The door of the room of Mrs. Fule has a lock both inside and outside. Until the time she went to sleep, she did not notice Besida went out of the room. Mrs. Fule's schedule of taking her medicine was after each meal, thus she does not have to wake up Mrs. Fule for the medicines.

At around 2:00 o'clock in the morning of July 11, 1985, Marieta was awakened by sounds of moaning from Mrs. Fule but when she stood up, she was blocked by Roel Punzalan and was told to just lie down or else she will be killed at the same time poking something at her back which she presumed to be a bladed instrument because it pierced through her skin. Because of the threat, Marieta just lay down facing the cabinet. After around three minutes, Punzalan went out of the room but she did not notice whether he was carrying something or whether his shirt had bloodstain. After three minutes, another person passed by and because of fear for her life, she just lay down facing sidewise towards the cabinet with her back against the passage from the door of the room of Mrs. Fule to the other door. It was about 2:15 to 2:30 o'clock in the morning that these two persons went out of the room of Mrs. Fule and her room. The door of the room of Mrs. Fule was slightly open and she saw scattered things but she did not see Mrs. Fule. From the time she was ordered to lie dawn by Punzalan, she did not sleep, she just lay down. Much as she wanted to inform the other occupants of the house, she was not able to do so because of fear that Punzalan might still be in the house, so she waited until around 6:00 o'clock in the morning. She crawled going to Nieves Santos and inquired about Roel Punzalan whom she saw at the room of Mrs. Fule. She told Nieves that she heard Mrs. Fule moaning and that she saw Roel Punzalan in the room of Mrs. Fule at around 2:00 o'clock that morning. Upon knowing that Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida were not there, she and Nieves together with Jun Murillo went to Gregorio Fule who is just living in the house adjacent to the house of Judge Fule. When they told Gregorio that Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida were no longer there, they were told by Gregorio to call a (sic) police and Gregorio went directly to the room of his mother. Until such time, she had no knowledge of what actually happened to Mrs. Fule because the first thing she did in the morning was to inquire from Nieves Santos the whereabouts of Punzalan because of what she had witnessed a few hours ago and later she was told by Gregorio to report the incident to the police.

Marieta further testified that her husband, Domingo visited her days before the incident. They talked about the children and his drinking and nothing else. When Judge Fule left for Manila on July 10, 1985, Domingo was no longer there having left that day at around 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon. She did not notice her husband talked (sic) with Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida. She knew nothing of the plans of Punzalan and Besida. Neither did she knew (sic) of the presence of these jewelries and money inside the room of Mrs. Fule.

I

The trial court gravely erred in giving much weight and credence to the evidence for the prosecution and in disregarding totally the evidence for the defense.

II

The trial court gravely erred in finding accused-appellant as a conspirator granting without admitting that conspiracy existed in the commission of the offense.

III

The trial court gravely erred in finding accused-appellant guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime as charged in the information.

IV

It is undisputed that accused Marieta was already aware that Lourdes Fule was moaning that fateful night and had glimpsed inside the victim's room seeing scattered things. But she did not do anything to assist her or prevent her killing. Neither did the accused Marieta relate what she witnessed that night to Nieves Garcia Santos and Gregorio Fule. Her suppression of such information is highly auspicious, to say the least.

Her claim that Roel Punzalan prevented her from entering the room of the deceased is unbelievable. If it was really true that Roel Punzalan blocked her way at the door and ordered her to lie down otherwise she would be killed, accused Marieta could have rushed out of her room and summoned help. Her excuse that she was allegedly paralyzed by her fear is not worthy of credence because of her allegation that from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. she was awake lying down on her sleeping mat while the victim was already dead or perhaps bleeding to death. No person who is only three (3) meters away from the body of another, a victim of foul play could have the nerve to stay alone at night for four hours. An innocent person under such circumstances would have not lasted five (5) minutes staying in that room for four (4) hours without doing anything. The fact that accused Marieta was able to show how coldblooded she is and suggested her complicity. She knew Mrs. Lourdes Fule moaned that night and could have reasonably thought that she was hurt and needed help. But when Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida left the victim's room, she did not even bother to check and see why her mistress was moaning so strong enough to have awakened her. Moreover, the fact that she suppressed the information about what happened to her mistress to Nieves Santos and Gregorio Fule was obviously intended to feign innocence. But if she was really innocent and was not a co-conspirator, she could have easily told Nieves Santos and Gregorio Fule what happened to her mistress at the first opportunity. At that particular time Jose Besida and Roel Punzalan were already gone and the members of the Fule family were there to offer her protection. She had nothing to fear from Jose Besida and Roel Punzalan since they were already gone. Instead, she only told Gregorio Fule that "Napasukan tayo ng magnanakaw" when they reported to him about the open front iron gate.

If it was also true that while watching TV she saw Jose Besida enter her room leading to the victim's room, her failure to report this to the victim, to Gregorio Fule or others leads one to believe that she was part of the conspiracy and lends support to the existence of a criminal plan.

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[S]he was not tied or bound by the other two accused, if the accused Marieta was not a conspirator, since she was an eye witness to the heinous crime she could have been killed by the said two accused to eliminate an eye witness. Or, at least they could have tied and gagged her to immobilize her to give them ample time to escape in the darkness of the night. She was not hurt by them. The fact that she was not tied, gagged, hurt or killed by accused Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida militates against her claim of innocence.

The room of the victim is such that no one can enter inside without passing through accused Marieta. The victim had jewelries and cash inside her room, for which reason she would not just open her door to anybody especially in the middle of the night. Anyone planning to rob her must contend with the presence of accused Marieta who slept outside the room of the victim. Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida could not have consummated the crime without the involvement and indispensable cooperation of accused Marieta. If she was not involved or a co-conspirator she would have been eliminated first, immobilized or neutralized before the other accused could break-in the door of the victim. It is significant to note that the door of the victim can not be opened by a false key from the outside. It could only be opened from the inside by releasing or sliding the iron bolt which is installed inside. The fact that the victim's door was not forcibly opened shows that the victim opened the door herself. The victim would not have opened for accused Roel Punzalan and Jose Besida who were relatively newly hired househelpers. But she would have opened the door for accused Marieta, her sort of nursemaid and security.

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