The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld a carnapping charge against Chao-Tiao Yumol II, ruling that prosecutors sufficiently alleged he took a sedan at gunpoint while fleeing the site of a deadly 2022 shooting at Ateneo de Manila University.

In a decision promulgated 30 July, the appellate court’s 13th Division dismissed Yumol’s petition challenging a Quezon City trial court’s refusal to quash the indictment, finding no grave abuse of discretion by the lower court.

Yumol argued that the charge was defective because it offered legal conclusions rather than details explaining how the vehicle was taken or how violence was used.The Court of Appeals upheld the carnapping charge against Chao-Tiao Yumol II over the alleged gunpoint seizure of a sedan during his escape from the 2022 Ateneo shooting.

He also asserted that the prosecution failed to establish intent to gain, and argued that the carnapping charge should be absorbed by his pending murder charges because the vehicle was allegedly taken to facilitate his escape.

The appellate court rejected those arguments, stating the charge properly outlined the essential elements under Republic Act 10883, the New Anti-Carnapping Act of 2016.

The charge states that on 24 July 2022, Yumol took a Honda Civic sedan driven by Johnny Palma “at gunpoint” and without the owner’s consent.

The court ruled that the phrase “at gunpoint” adequately described the use of violence or intimidation, noting that prosecutors need to allege ultimate facts rather than every detail — such as the specific firearm type — to be established at trial.

Justices also ruled that intent to gain is an internal state of mind inferred from unlawful taking.

Addressing the defense’s argument regarding murder charges, the court clarified that using a motor vehicle qualifies a killing as murder only when the vehicle itself is used as the instrument of the crime.

Because the sedan was taken after the shooting solely to aid his flight, it could not serve as the means by which the killings were committed, the justices ruled.

The case stems from the 24 July, 2022, shooting at the Ateneo campus in Quezon City that left three people dead.

Prosecutors alleged Yumol commandeered Palma’s sedan at gunpoint while escaping, abandoned it at a gas station along Aurora Boulevard after hitting a motorcycle, and was subsequently arrested on a public minibus.

Yumol faces separate criminal charges for three counts of murder, frustrated murder and carnapping.