1. People v. Latupan, G.R. No.

112453, 28 June 2001

Latupan stabbed to death sisters, located in different houses, and the kids of one of these sisters.

Latupan later on pleaded guilty to the single offense of multiple murder with multiple frustrated
murder.

SC ruled that the trial court erred in erred in convicting accused-appellant of the "complex crime
of double murder" and separate offenses of serious physical injuries. Article 48 of the Revised
Penal Code provides: "When a single act constitutes two or more grave or less grave felonies or
when an offense is a necessary means for committing the other, the penalty for the most serious
crime shall be imposed, the same to be applied in its maximum period." The instant case does not
fall under any of the two mentioned instances when a complex crime is committed. 13 The killing
of Lilia Asuncion and Jose Asuncion and the wounding of Jaime and Leo Asuncion resulted not
from a single act but from several and distinct acts of stabbing.

Accused-appellant is liable, not for a complex crime of double murder, but for two separate
counts of murder, and separate counts of physical injuries.

The penalty prescribed by law for the crime of frustrated homicide is one degree lower than that
prescribed by law for the crime of homicide. Considering that the penalty prescribed by law for
the crime of homicide is reclusion temporal, the penalty for the crime of frustrated homicide
would be prision mayor. Applying the indeterminate sentence law, there being the mitigating
circumstance of voluntary surrender and no aggravating circumstance, the maximum of the
sentence should be within the range of prision mayor in its minimum term which has a duration
of six (6) years and one (1) day to eight (8) years, and that, on the other hand, the minimum
should be within the range of prision correccional which has a duration of six (6) months and one
(1) day to six (6) years. Thus, the imposition of imprisonment from four (4) years of prision
correccional, as minimum, to seven (7) years of prision mayor, as maximum, is in order. People
v. Lanuza, G.R. No. 188562, 17 August 2011.