Beck v. State

712 S.W.2d 745, 1986 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 793
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 2, 1986
Docket013-85
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 712 S.W.2d 745 (Beck 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
Beck v. State, 712 S.W.2d 745, 1986 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 793 (Tex. 1986).

Opinions

OPINION ON STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

W.C. DAVIS, Judge.

Appellant, who was 16 years old at the time of the offense, was certified as an adult and was tried and convicted of capital murder. The court assessed punishment at life imprisonment. See V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 8.07(d). The Fourteenth Court of Appeals reversed the conviction, holding that appellant’s confession made to police should not have been admitted into evidence because appellant had invoked his right to counsel under the United States and Texas Constitutions. Beck v. State, 681 S.W.2d 825 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th dist.] 1984). While we will not review the Court of Appeals’ determination that the confession was inadmissible, we granted the State’s petition for discretionary review to consider whether the admission was harmful.

Gerald Don Shelton, appellant's uncle, testified that he went to appellant’s residence at about 7:00 p.m. on November 2, 1982. A newspaper with an article about the discovery of the body of the deceased was open on the table. Shelton asked appellant if he had anything to do with it. Appellant said he had done it. Shelton testified that over the next two hours appellant told him the details of the murder. Shelton related that appellant told him that he and Darrell Shelton, also a nephew of Gerald’s, saw the deceased on the street in Clute and forced him into the trunk of the car. They drove out of town, took money from the deceased and then drove to Brazo-ria. They then took the deceased out of the trunk and appellant shot him three or four times. Appellant took the deceased’s Corvette automobile, drove it to some apartments in Lake Jackson, and parked it. Appellant told his uncle that he killed the deceased because he would be able to identify Darrell and he. He gave his uncle the gun, the car keys to the Corvette and a sock containing live and spent ammunition. His uncle talked to appellant about turning himself in to the police and why he had killed the deceased. When the police arrested appellant later that night, Shelton gave them the gun, keys, and sock containing ammunition.

Lieutenant Matt Wingo of the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department investigated the murder involving appellant. He discovered the deceased’s body and a red Corvette cap and subsequently arrested appellant at his house. Appellant’s uncle, Shelton, was present when Wingo arrived and he related to Wingo the admissions appellant had made to him. Shelton also gave Wingo the gun, the car keys, and the sock containing ammunition that appellant had given him. As a result of the information Shelton gave him, Wingo found the Corvette in the place appellant had said it would be, which was about a quarter of a mile from appellant’s house.

[747]*747Wingo questioned appellant the day after his arrest and appellant declined to give a written statement, but agreed to discuss the offense with Wingo. The Court of Appeals held this oral confession inadmissible and we do not disturb that finding. However, for the purpose of evaluating the harmfulness of its admission it is necessary to include the testimony about the confession.

Wingo testified that appellant said that he and Darrell Shelton were “looking for somebody to roll.” They followed the driver of the Corvette to some apartments in Chite, approached the driver and tried to force him into the trunk of the Corvette. When he did not fit into that trunk they put him in the trunk of their car and drove to a boat ramp where they took his money and discarded his wallet. Then they drove to County Road 244 and told the deceased to walk down the road. Appellant shot him as he walked. Appellant stood over him and fired at him as he lay on the ground. Darrell and appellant left and drove to Houston in the Corvette. They returned to Brazoria county, remembered that they had left the deceased on the road, and went back to the scene and dragged him off the road into some bushes. Appellant drove the Corvette to some apartments near his home and parked it there. He also told Wingo that he wiped the car clean of fingerprints. Appellant told Wingo where the deceased’s wallet was located and the police subsequently found it.

Wingo testified on cross examination that Darrell Shelton also told the police the approximate location of the wallet, but that they did not find it on their initial search. After Wingo talked to appellant the police found the wallet.

The State and appellant entered into a stipulation that the medical examiner would testify that he performed an autopsy on the deceased and that the cause of death was gunshot wounds to the neck and head. Only a bullet fragment was recovered from the head of the deceased.

C.E. Anderson, a firearms examiner with the Houston Police Department, testified that he compared the bullet fragment taken from the deceased’s head with the ammunition given by appellant to his uncle and then to the police. The fragment was too mutilated to determine if it had been fired from the gun appellant had given his uncle. Anderson said that the fragment was a .22 caliber, Remington Peters brand. He also testified that the empty shell casings, which were in the sock appellant had given to his uncle, were .22 caliber, Remington Peters brand.

The Court of Appeals held that appellant’s oral confession made to Wingo should not have been admitted at trial. The Court of Appeals reversed the conviction because of the use of the oral confession in violation of appellant’s right to counsel under the United States and Texas Constitutions. We now review that reversal by determining the harmfulness of this violation of appellant’s constitutional right to counsel. See Milton v. Wainwright, 407 U.S. 371, 92 S.Ct. 2174, 33 L.Ed.2d 1 (1972); Harrington v. California, 395 U.S. 250, 89 S.Ct. 1726, 23 L.Ed.2d 284 (1969); Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); see also United States v. Hastings, 461 U.S. 499, 103 S.Ct. 1974, 76 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983).

The evidence must be examined to determine whether “there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction.” Chapman v. California, supra, 386 U.S. at 23, 87 S.Ct. at 827. Our judgment must be based on our reading of the record and “on what seems to us to have been the probable impact of the [complained of evidence] on the minds of an average jury.” Harrington v. California, supra, 395 U.S. at 254, 89 S.Ct. at 1728. The error must be found to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The factors of the particular case must be considered, including whether the testimony was cumulative, the presence or absence of evidence corroborating or contradicting the testimony of the witness on material points, and the overall strength of the prosecutor’s case.

[748]*748In the instant case appellant’s oral confession as related by Wingo at trial was essentially the same as that to which appellant’s uncle had previously testified appellant had told him before appellant ever told the police anything. Even without the oral confession made to Wingo the evidence of appellant’s guilt was overwhelming.

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Bluebook (online)
712 S.W.2d 745, 1986 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 793, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-v-state-texcrimapp-1986.