PEOPLE V.

OANIS
G.R. No. L-47722 July 27, 1943
MORAN, J.:

FACTS:
Chief of Police Antonio Oanis was instructed to arrest an escaped convict Anselmo Balagtas with
bailarina and Irene in Cabanatuan, and if overpowered, get him dead or alive.

The Provincial Inspector divided the party into two groups with defendants Oanis and his co-
accused Alberto Galanta, and private Fernandez taking the route leading to the house where
Irene was supposedly living. When this group arrived at Irene's house, Oanis approached Brigida
Mallare and asked her where Irene's room was. Brigida directed them to the place and also said
that Irene was sleeping with her paramour.

Defendants Oanis and Galanta then went to Irene’s room, and upon seeing a man sleeping with
his back towards the door where they were, without having made any inquiry as to his identity,
successively fired at him with their .32 and .45 caliber revolvers. Irene fainted and it turned out
later that the person shot and killed was not the notorious criminal Balagtas but innocent citizen
named Serapio Tecson, Irene's paramour.

They were found guilt of homicide through reckless imprudence. But they contended that, they
acted in innocent mistake of fact in the honest performance of their official duties, both of them
believing that Tecson was Balagtas, thus, they incur no criminal liability.

ISSUE:
Whether or not Oanis and Galanta incur no liability due to innocent mistake of fact in the honest
performance of their official duties.

RULING:
No. They incur criminal liability because they cannot invoke the innocent mistake of fact as an
excuse for it applies only when the mistake is committed without fault or carelessness.

The crime committed by appellants is not merely criminal negligence, the killing being
intentional and not accidental.

In the case at bar, the accused still have ample time and opportunity to ascertain the identity of
the victim without hazard to themselves, as the victim was unarmed and sleeping. Even if the
victim was really Balagtas, still, they were instructed not to kill Balagtas at sight but to arrest him,
and to get him dead or alive only if resistance or aggression is offered by him.

As the deceased was killed while asleep, the crime committed is murder with the qualifying
circumstance of alevosia. There is, however, a mitigating circumstance of incomplete justifying
circumstance.