Anderson v. State

504 S.W.2d 507, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1484
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 23, 1974
Docket47001
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 504 S.W.2d 507 (Anderson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. State, 504 S.W.2d 507, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1484 (Tex. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

JACKSON, Commissioner.

The conviction was for unlawfully carrying a pistol with punishment enhanced under Article 61, Vernon’s Ann.P.C., to eighteen (18) months in the county jail.

The sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the State and in support of the verdict of the jury, the record shows on November 15, 1971, the appellant was apprehended by University of Houston security officer A. A. Banghart after appellant was found attempting to enter a parked automobile on the University campus. Upon being confronted by Banghart, appellant refused, despite a request by Banghart, to produce any identification. Banghart then radioed for assistance and was met by Sgt. Casey who was Banghart’s superior. The appellant was then handcuffed and taken to the security office where he was searched. This search, conducted by Sgt. Casey, disclosed a .22 caliber pistol hidden in the clothing of the appellant. Houston police officers were summoned and the appellant was taken to jail. The pistol was also turned over to the Houston Police Department officer. On this appeal, appellant assigns eleven grounds of error.

In his ground of error number one, appellant complains that the court erred in not responding to his objections to the charge. He has grouped four examples of such alleged errors in one ground of error. Such general and multifarious grounds of error do not comply with Article 40.09, Section 9, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P., and nothing is thereby presented to us for review. Hinkle v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 442 S.W.2d 728, and many cases collated in Note 34.4 under Article 40.09, V.A.C.C.P.

Secondly, appellant contends that the verdict of the jury on punishment is void in that it finds the appellant guilty as a “second offender.” Appellant insists that this term is to be nowhere found in the court’s charge to the jury on punishment and, therefore, the use of this term by the jury renders the verdict vague, indefinite and ambiguous.

In paragraph III of the charge of the court to the jury, we find the following language:

“ . . .if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that prior to the commission of the offense of unlawfully carrying a pistol . . . for which you have found appellant guilty, the defendant was once before convicted of unlawfully carrying a pistol in Cause No. 230,270 . . . then you will find the defendant guilty as a second offender and set forth your verdict in the form provided for that purpose. . . . ”

*510 It is thus apparent that the language used by the jury in its verdict did, in fact, track the language of the court’s charge. Thus, the jury’s verdict is in no way vague or indefinite. Appellant’s second ground of error is overruled.

Appellant’s next ground of error insists that the sentence of the trial court is void since it recites that he was sentenced as a third offender when, in fact, the jury found him guilty as a second offender under the provisions of Article 61, V.A.P.C. The judgment herein properly recites that the appellant was found guilty as a second offender and, therefore, this Court is empowered to reform the sentence to properly reflect that appellant was found guilty as a second offender. Article 42.09, V.A.C.C.P.; Turner v. State, Tex. Cr.App., 485 S.W.2d 282.

In his fifth ground of error, appellant asserts that inadmissible hearsay was allowed to be placed into the record when Officer Casey was permitted to testify over objection that Officer Banghart had told him that the appellant would not identify himself.

This record supports the fact that the above testimony was admitted over objection. However, we also observe from the record that Officer Banghart testified to exactly the same facts without objection. Any error in the admission of this evidence was thus rendered harmless since the same facts were proven by other testimony not objected to. Bain v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 492 S.W.2d 475; Green v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 488 S.W.2d 805.

Under his sixth ground of error, appellant urges that the conviction should be reversed since the trial court permitted the pistol to be introduced into evidence even though the State had failed to properly prove chain of custody of the pistol.

Ordinarily, when an object is easily identifiable as being a particular item, such as a pistol, chain of custody need not be shown if there is direct evidence at the trial that the pistol sought to be introduced into evidence is the same pistol taken from the accused at the scene of the crime. Lewis v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 493 S.W.2d 778; Garcia v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 453 S.W.2d 822. See Fulcher v. State, 163 Tex.Cr.R. 177, 289 S.W.2d 588. Here, Officer Banghart, a security officer for the University of Houston, testified that he observed his superior, Sgt. Casey, search the appellant subsequent to his arrest, and that a .22 caliber pistol was recovered. Further, he testified that this pistol was turned over to a Houston policeman who came to arrest the appellant though he was unable to name that officer. Officer Slay, a Houston policeman, testified that he arrested appellant at the University of Houston security office the day in question and that he was given a .22 caliber pistol by Sgt. Casey which he marked for identification on the bottom. He then positively identified State’s Exhibit No. 1 as the pistol he marked at the time of appellant’s arrest at the University of Houston security office.

In regard to the period of time from the time appellant was taken into custody by Houston police and the pistol marked by Officer Slay until the time of the trial, the rule of Lewis v. State, supra, and Garcia v. State, supra, is applicable and no showing of chain of custody was required since Slay positively identified the pistol. As to the period of time between the moment appellant was searched by University of Houston security officers and the pistol recovered and the time the pistol was marked by Officer Slay, we find that there is sufficient evidence in the record to show an unbroken chain of custody of the pistol and therefore hold that the trial court properly admitted State’s Exhibit No. 1 into evidence. No error is shown.

Appellant’s seventh ground of error complains that two statements made by the prosecutor during his final argument to the jury constituted comments on his failure to testify. The first of these arguments was *511 when the prosecutor said in regard to whether or not the pistol would fire:

“It is not on the State to prove the pistol works. I was trying to do it but it is a defensive issue that Mr. O’Dowd and the Defendant to raise that; . . . ”

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Bluebook (online)
504 S.W.2d 507, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-state-texcrimapp-1974.