Bonfanti v. State

686 S.W.2d 149, 1985 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1241
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 6, 1985
Docket64086
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 686 S.W.2d 149 (Bonfanti 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
Bonfanti v. State, 686 S.W.2d 149, 1985 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1241 (Tex. 1985).

Opinions

OPINION

W.C. DAVIS, Judge.

A jury found appellant guilty of aggravated rape. The court assessed punishment at confinement for life.

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, contending that there was no evidence that he threatened death and serious bodily injury.

Appellant was charged by indictment with aggravated rape. The indictment alleged that the intercourse was nonconsen-sual because appellant compelled the complainant to submit “by force, that overcame such earnest resistance as might reasonably have been expected under the circumstances ” — V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 21.02(b)(1)1; and because appellant compelled the complainant to submit “by threats, communicated by actions, words and deeds, that would prevent resistance by a woman of ordinary resolution_”— V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 21.02(b)(2). After each consent element the same aggravating factor was charged, namely, that appellant compelled the complainant’s submission “by threat of death and serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted on [the complainant].” See V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Sec. 21.03(a)(2).

The complainant testified that, on April 28, 1978, she had stayed home from work because she felt ill. Appellant had been doing carpentry work on the house in which she lived and had come in and out of the house several times that morning. The complainant was sitting on the couch in the living room when appellant walked around behind her, put a gun to her head, and said, “This is a stick up.” She thought he was kidding until he said he was not kidding and told her to go upstairs with him. As she started up the stairs the complainant said, “No, please don’t.” Appellant replied that he “would use it if he had to.” After they reached to the top of the stairs, appellant pointed the gun at the complainant, ordered her to take her clothes off, and then kissed and fondled her. The complainant asked to go back downstairs, hoping that she could reach a shotgun in a closet there. Appellant became impatient and told her to get back upstairs. He continued pointing the gun at her.

Appellant made the complainant lie down on the floor and tied the complainant’s hands to the leg of a bed. As she attempted to untie the rope, he put the gun to her [151]*151head and cocked it. She stopped trying to untie the rope. Appellant forced the complainant to have oral intercourse, fondled her, and then had sexual intercourse with her. During this episode appellant kept the gun in his hand.

Appellant untied the complainant from the bed, and, keeping the rope around her wrist, led her downstairs. He led her back upstairs to put her robe on, then went downstairs and asked her to get her purse. He took money from the purse. The complainant asked him not to kill her; he told her he was going to take her down the road and leave her so she would not be near a telephone. The complainant testified that she was sure then that he was going to take her into the woods and shoot her.

Appellant led the complainant to his car, drove a short distance down a dirt road, tied her to a tree, and then drove off.

Dr. Harold Cameron testified, inter alia, that the complainant had abrasions on her wrists consistent with rope burns. Appellant did not testify or offer any witnesses in his behalf. The testimony of the State’s witnesses was not impeached.

Appellant’s actions, words, and deeds, including pointing the gun at the complainant and forcing her to undress, placing the gun at her head and cocking it, and telling the complainant that he would use the gun if he had to, were ample to support the allegation that he compelled her to submit to sexual intercourse by threat of death and serious bodily injury.2 See Whitchurch v. State, 650 S.W.2d 422 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); King v. State, 649 S.W.2d 42 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); Berry v. State, 579 S.W.2d 487 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Rogers v. State, 575 S.W.2d 555 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). The ground of error is overruled.

In his pro se brief appellant contends that the court’s charge to the jury is fundamentally defective because it instructs the jury that guilt may be found based upon a theory not alleged in the indictment. No objection was made at trial, therefore we must determine if the error was “so egregious and created such harm that [appellant] ‘has not had a fair and impartial trial.’ ” Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 173 (Opinion on rehearing, delivered February 27,1985).

Appellant was charged by indictment with aggravated rape, specifically, noncon-senual intercourse by force and threats. See Y.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 21.02(b)(1) & (2). The aggravating factor alleged3 was that appellant compelled the victim to have sexual intercourse “by threat of death and serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted on [the complainant].” The court’s charge instructed the jury that if they found that appellant,

... did then and there unlawfully and intentionally and without the consent and against the will of [the complainant], a female, have sexual intercourse with the [complainant], and that the said [complainant] was not then and there the wife of the said defendant, and that the defendant used force on [the complainant] on the occasion in question, as well as threats, to accomplish the sexual intercourse, and that such force was sufficient to overcome such earnest resistance as might reasonably be expected under the circumstances at the time, or that such threat or threats, if any, were such as would prevent resistance by a woman of ordinary resolution under the same or similar circumstances because of a reasonable fear of harm, and that the defendant, in the course of the same crimi[152]*152nal episode as the alleged rape caused serious bodily injury to [the complainant] or4 compelled submission to the rape by threat of death or serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted on her, then you will find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.

Unfortunately, the court failed to compare the charge to the indictment and did not notice that the indictment did not allege that appellant caused serious bodily injury. The charge thus enlarged upon the allegations in the indictment and instructed the jury that they could find appellant guilty if they found either that he had caused bodily injury or that he had threatened death or serious bodily injury as alleged in the indictment. V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 21.-03(a)(1) & (2).

Prior to this Court’s opinion in Al-manza, supra, such a charge required automatic reversal. Stone v. State, 599 S.W.2d 830, 831 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); Scott v. State, 599 S.W.2d 618 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); McNiel v. State, 599 S.W.2d 328 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); Lowry v. State,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
686 S.W.2d 149, 1985 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bonfanti-v-state-texcrimapp-1985.