Bell v. State

442 S.W.2d 716, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 951
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 21, 1969
Docket42042
StatusPublished
Cited by62 cases

This text of 442 S.W.2d 716 (Bell 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
Bell v. State, 442 S.W.2d 716, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 951 (Tex. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

MORRISON, Judge.

The offense is murder with malice; the punishment, 20 years.

The evidence adduced at the trial shows that on the night in question, at approximately 12:40 and 12:45 A.M. a woman who identified herself as appellant called the Houston police and requested an ambulance, stating that she had shot her husband and another woman, and giving her address. Within the hour five members of the Houston police force arrived separately at the address given by the woman to investigate the reported shooting. Sgt. Gor-dy, the first to arrive, related that he peered through the front door, saw a man lying on the floor, went around the house and entered through the back door, saw appellant on the phone but said nothing to her at that time, saw the nude body of a woman on the floor and a half-clad man severely wounded on the floor nearby. The man identified himself as Deputy Sheriff Bell, stated that he wanted an ambulance, that he was dying, and upon being asked by Sgt. Gordy who had shot him replied, “My wife.” Sgt. Gordy then started for the front door and upon meeting Officers LeCompte and Carmichael, returned to the interior of the house, when appellant appeared and engaged Officer Carmichael in a discussion which neither Sgt. Gordy nor Officer LeCompte overheard. Officer Carmichael reported a chain of events identical to those related by Sgt. Gordy, and further stated, both on voir dire and later before the jury, that he did not arrest appellant, nor did he consider her to be custody, that he asked the usual, innocuous question “What happened?”, to which appellant replied that “she caught them sleeping in bed. * * * She walked over to the lamp table * * * took out this pistol and shot them.” Eight empty bullet hulls were found on the floor near the bodies, all of which were identified as coming from the gun appellant admittedly fired at the deceaseds, and all of which housed the bullets which inflicted some sixteen fatal wounds on both bodies. Appellant’s defense was that of self-defense.

The court properly charged the jury on self-defense and on malice, and the jury were justified, under the evidence and the charge, in returning their verdict. Appellant’s first ground of error — that the evidence is insufficient to sustain a finding of malice, is accordingly overruled. See Bell v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 398 S.W.2d 133.

Her second ground of error relates to the court’s overruling of appellant’s motion for discovery. The trial court conducted a hearing on such motion and carefully, point by point, considered and ruled on it. Many of the matters set out in the motion were public records available to appellant upon request; others were matters not within the knowledge of the prosecutor, as so testified to by the prosecutor; and others have been held to be exempt from discovery. See Enriquez v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 429 S.W.2d 141; Bryant v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 423 S.W.2d 320; Hackathorn v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 422 S.W.2d 920; Sonderup v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 418 S.W.2d 807; Smith v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 409 S.W.2d 409, cert. den. 389 U.S. 822, 88 S.Ct. 45, 19 L.Ed.2d 73.

We further note that nowhere in the record has appellant shown that matters sought to be discovered were material to appellant’s defense or material to the issue of punishment, or that material matters sought to be discovered were in the posses *719 sion of and withheld by the state. The Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, line of cases 1 do not stand for the proposition advanced by appellant here — that she should have been granted carte blanche in rummaging through the state’s files in the hope of uncovering some shred of evidence which might be of assistance to her either on the issue of guilt or punishment. Ground of error #2 is overruled.

Relying upon the cases cited above, appellant next complains of the court’s failure to grant her motion to produce evidence inconsistent with her guilt and her motion to have the State list the names of all witnesses. Because the motions lack that degree of specificity required to come within the rule announced in Brady v. Maryland, supra, and because the record reflects that the State’s subpoena, on which were listed all the State’s witnesses was on file and available for public inspection prior to appellant’s trial, and for the reasons pointed out in discussing her second ground of error, appellant’s third and fourth grounds of error are without merit.

Grounds of error #5 and 6 relate to the court’s overruling of appellant’s motion to suppress evidence and motion to suppress a confession.

At the hearing on these motions, the court ruled that both motions would be “overruled without prejudice on the part of the defendant to make any objections to the evidence referred to * * * at such time as it may be offered in the trial of this cause and without prejudice to request hearings outside the presence of the jury.” Art. 28.01, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P., upon which appellant relies, is not mandatory and the court, in its discretion, may elect to determine the merits of the motion at the time when the subject matter of the motion is first brought before the court during the trial rather than at a pre-trial hearing. In the case at bar, full and com-píete hearings were accorded appellant at the time the complained-of evidence and confession were introduced. This was compliance with Art. 28.01, supra.

We further note that the motion for suppression of the confession was filed on the first day of appellant’s trial. The court’s overruling of such motion is in accord with our recent opinions in Sonderup v. State, supra, and Bosley v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 414 S.W.2d 468, cert. den. 389 U. S. 876, 88 S.Ct. 172, 19 L.Ed.2d 162.

The seventh ground of error relates to a motion to require the district attorney to produce certain documents which motion was also filed on the day of appellant’s trial. The documents referred to in the motion were, for the most part identical to those requested in appellant’s motion for discovery. For the reasons pointed out in discussing the motion for discovery, and in reliance on Sonderup v. State, supra, and Bosley v. State, supra, this ground of error is overruled.

Appellant’s eighth ground of error relates to the approval of the record and certain objections and exceptions taken to the record by appellant which were filed before notice of completion of the record was given to appellant. Art. 40.09, Section 7, V.A.C.C.P. Assuming the omissions set forth in appellant’s objections and exceptions to the record had been included in the record, we find no error reflected with or without such inclusions.

The ninth ground of error assigned complains of the court’s overruling of appellant’s objections to Officer Rollins’ testimony that appellant twice called him on the night in question, requested an ambulance, and told him she had just shot her husband and another woman. Appellant testified to calling the police immediately after she fired the fatal shots. Gaines v. State, 157 Tex.Cr.R. 105, 247 S.W.2d 251.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mike Frederick Bwondara v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Suzanne Elizabeth Wexler v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
State v. Hill
499 S.W.3d 853 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2016)
Jimmie Mischelle Wells v. State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012
York v. State
342 S.W.3d 528 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
York, Rickie Dawson
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011
Lynn Sherrill Heckel v. State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010
Yanez v. State
187 S.W.3d 724 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006)
Efrain Avila Yanez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006
Vickers v. State
801 S.W.2d 214 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Calloway v. State
743 S.W.2d 645 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Dickens v. Court of Appeals for the Second Supreme Judicial District of Texas
727 S.W.2d 542 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1987)
Moore v. State
700 S.W.2d 193 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Shiflet v. State
732 S.W.2d 622 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Guzmon v. State
697 S.W.2d 404 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Cannon v. State
691 S.W.2d 664 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
McNeill v. State
650 S.W.2d 405 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Prince v. State
638 S.W.2d 550 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)
Heckert v. State
612 S.W.2d 549 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Bush v. State
611 S.W.2d 428 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
442 S.W.2d 716, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 951, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-state-texcrimapp-1969.