The Court of Appeals (CA) has denied a soldier’s plea to overturn his conviction for frustrated homicide over the 2013 Christmas Eve shooting of a neighbor during a dispute about loud videoke singing in Pangasinan, giving weight to a key eyewitness’s testimony.

In a 28 August 2025 decision, the CA Tenth Division, penned by Associate Justice Pedro Corales, ruled that the testimony of Bernabe Bautista Sr. proved the guilt of Master Sgt. Jackson Martinez. The CA deferred to the trial court’s assessment of Bautista’s credibility, noting the trial judge’s first-hand observation of the witness’s demeanor. It added that Bautista had been consistent in his statements, including on the stand.

The appellate court said Bautista could not have been mistaken because he had focused his flashlight on Martinez and that the two were familiar with each other, making identification easier even from a considerable distance.

It found it “unnatural” for Bautista — the victim’s uncle — to falsely implicate Martinez, as doing so would allow the real shooter to go free. The decision stated: “More importantly, Bernabe, Sr. is the uncle of the victim and it would be unnatural for him, being a relative and interested in vindicating the crime, to implicate someone other than the real culprit lest the guilty go unpunished. The earnest desire to seek justice for a kin is not served should the witness abandon his or her conscience and prudence, and blame one who is innocent of the crime.”

Alleged inconsistencies regarding the bullet’s point of entry were deemed collateral matters that did not undermine the commission of the crime or the substance and weight of the testimony. The CA concluded that Martinez was positively and consistently identified by Bautista and acted with intent to kill the victim, Gerald Bautista, who survived due to timely medical intervention.

According to the Urdaneta City Regional Trial Court (RTC), the incident began when a dispute erupted between Martinez’s sister, Mary Christine Ybañez, and Gerald’s aunt, Celedonia Bautista-Westwood, who had asked that the videoke volume be lowered. The RTC found that Ybañez’s brothers, including Martinez, lost their temper over the perceived insult; Martinez then fired toward the house where members of the Bautista family were seated, hitting Gerald in the head and causing paralysis.

Martinez, who was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison, challenged the conviction, arguing that the witness did not identify him, that it was absurd for Bautista to have trained a flashlight on him “four times,” and that testimony on the bullet wound conflicted with medical findings. The CA rejected these arguments.

However, the CA modified the damages: it reduced moral damages from P500,000 to P30,000 to align with prevailing jurisprudence, deleted the P30,000 exemplary damages award for lack of an aggravating circumstance, and sustained the awards of P30,000 in civil indemnity and P1.59 million in actual damages.