Boggess v. State

855 S.W.2d 656, 1989 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 17, 1989 WL 6375
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 1, 1989
Docket69990
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 855 S.W.2d 656 (Boggess 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
Boggess v. State, 855 S.W.2d 656, 1989 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 17, 1989 WL 6375 (Tex. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

CAMPBELL, Justice.

Appeal is taken from a conviction for capital murder. V.T.C.A.Penal Code, § 19.-03(a)(2). The murder was committed in Montague County and tried on a change of venue in Clay County. Appellant was convicted of intentionally causing the death of Frank Collier by cutting and stabbing him with a knife while in the course of committing and attempting to commit the offense of robbery. After finding appellant guilty of the offense of capital murder, the jury returned affirmative findings to the special issues under Article 37.071, V.A.C.C.P. Punishment was assessed at death.

Appellant raises seven points of error. He challenges: the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a guilty verdict; the sufficiency of the evidence to support an affirmative finding to special punishment issue number two; the constitutionality of the Texas death penalty scheme; the trial judge’s refusal to find that a prior reduction of a capital murder charge to murder constituted an implicit finding of fact concerning future dangerousness, thus collaterally estopping the State from seeking the death penalty; the imposition of the death penalty on one already sentenced to life imprisonment as violative of the Eighth Amendment; and the denial of due process where a plea agreement between the State and the appellant was allegedly breached.

In his seventh point of error, appellant contends the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction. We will set out the relevant facts upon which the jury could have based their conviction.

Appellant’s conviction was based wholly on circumstantial evidence. Appellant was employed by Williams Construction Company at the time of this offense. Two employees of Williams Construction testified that in May of 1986, appellant talked about an old man in Saint Jo who carried a lot of money and would be easy to rob. Tommy Stinson, appellant’s roommate, testified that appellant told him about an old man in Saint Jo who owned a grocery store. The old man did not believe in banks and always carried a lot of cash in his pockets. Appellant also told Stinson that he knew the routine of the old man and the way he closed the store. During the later part of June or the first week in July of 1986, appellant asked Stinson if he would assist him in robbing the old man. Appellant also asked for help in obtaining a weapon. Stin-son refused, stating that he did not want to get involved.

Deborah Pavlak, Stinson’s girlfriend, testified that she overheard a conversation between Stinson and appellant in which appellant described an old man in Saint Jo with a lot of money who would be easy to rob. Appellant stated that he was broke and “did not want to be.” Pavlak overheard appellant ask Stinson for a ride to Saint Jo, but Stinson refused to take him.

Damon Smith, appellant’s cousin, testified that prior to the commission of this offense, appellant told him that he was thinking about robbing and killing Frank Collier. Frank Collier, the deceased, owned a small store in Saint Jo. Appellant asked Smith to assist him in the robbery but Smith refused to help.

Mr. Grover Clevenger testified that on July 23rd, 1986, as he was passing through Gainesville on his way to Muenster, he saw appellant walking along the highway and offered him a ride. Appellant accepted, and the two men (appellant and Clevenger) proceeded on to Muenster, stopping once for a few beers. Clevenger bought the *659 beers because appellant said he was broke. Once in Muenster, appellant stated that his destination was just beyond Muenster, in Saint Jo. Clevenger agreed to drive appellant to Saint Jo. Clevenger dropped appellant off in Boggess Park in Saint Jo, estimating the time of day to be about noon, or a little thereafter. 1

Clevenger remained in the park for approximately 15 to 20 minutes and upon leaving town, he saw appellant flagging him down. Clevenger agreed to give appellant a ride back to Gainesville. Appellant told Clevenger that he had just picked up a check and offered to pay Clevenger $20 for gas. Clevenger told appellant that he had plenty of gas. Appellant then offered to buy Clevenger’s car for $500.00, which Cle-venger refused. 2 Upon returning to Gainesville, appellant and Clevenger went to the VFW Hall to drink beer and shoot pool. Appellant paid for all the beer they consumed.

Gary Brewer testified that at approximately 6:00 p.m., on the date of the offense, he saw appellant in Saint Jo near the “mud barn” 3 which was two blocks from Collier’s store. Cathy Brewer testified that she was with her husband, Gary Brewer, when they saw appellant and she recalled the time to be about 6:30 p.m. Tanya Reeves testified that she also saw the appellant near the “mud barn” between 6:00 o’clock and 6:45 p.m.

Several witnesses testified that they had been in Frank Collier’s store during the evening of July 23, 1986. David Heller testified that he had been in the store on this date between 6:10 and 6:15 p.m. and Frank Collier had cashed a $20.00 check for him. Between 6:50 and 7:00 p.m. Heller was in Boggess Park when he observed a car pull up and the appellant get out. The appellant proceeded into the park where he put a substance on his fingers from a small plastic bottle with a red cap. Appellant left the park and headed towards the center of town.

Christine Brewer testified that she was in Frank Collier’s store at 7:00 p.m. on the evening of the offense. She made a purchase totaling $4.00 which corresponded to the last entry in the store’s register. While in the store, she saw a man whom she identified as the appellant. Upon completing her purchase, she left the store, and the man remained in the store.

Chris Milton testified that on July 23, 1986, he and his cousin went to Collier’s store a little after 7:00 p.m. When Collier could not be found in the main part of the store, Milton went back to the storage area where he found Collier lying in a puddle of blood. Milton went to a nearby store and called the police.

Ray Clevenger, an officer with the Saint Jo Police Department, received a call at 7:31 p.m. that there was a problem at Collier’s grocery store. Upon arriving at the store he found Collier’s body in the storage room.

The Medical Examiner testified that he performed an autopsy on the body of the deceased. The deceased’s throat had been cut and there were various injuries to his face, one of which appeared to be the imprint of the sole of a tennis shoe. Additionally, the nose was fractured indicating a blunt force impacting the nose and causing a fracturing of the thin bones underneath the nose. The deceased had also suffered several rib fractures as well as a fracture of the sternum. The Medical Examiner concluded that the cause of death was the wound to the neck, a stab wound to the face, and blunt force injuries to the head and chest.

An investigating officer testified that one of Collier’s pockets was pulled out of his pants and the inside of the pocket was bloody. There was $950.00 in cash found in his back pants pocket. No physical evidence found at the scene linked appellant to the crime.

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Bluebook (online)
855 S.W.2d 656, 1989 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 17, 1989 WL 6375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boggess-v-state-texcrimapp-1989.