Boone v. State

629 S.W.2d 786, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4710
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 23, 1981
DocketB14-81-035-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 629 S.W.2d 786 (Boone v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boone v. State, 629 S.W.2d 786, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4710 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

SAM ROBERTSON, Justice.

The prior opinion of this court filed on November 19, 1981 is withdrawn and the following is substituted therefor.

The jury rejected appellant’s plea of not guilty to the offense of burglary of a habitation, found that he had previously been convicted of a felony as alleged, and assessed his punishment at confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections for a period of sixty (60) years. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Appellant brings forward 20 grounds of error. In his eighteenth ground of error, he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence.

The evidence shows that on April 8, 1978, while Roy Shepherd, (the complainant) and his wife were out to dinner, someone broke into their home, ransacked it, and took various items of property, including a .38 caliber revolver, a slide projector, a coin collection, a home safe and a pair of binoculars. The evidence further shows that on the night of April 19, 1978, appellant went to the residence of Rebecca Ward and stated that he had “some things to sell” and for some pills, traded to her mother *788 (Sally Lawrence) the .38 caliber revolver identified by the complainant as being his pistol taken during the burglary. The witness Ward further testified that appellant told them that he had obtained the pistol in a burglary. In addition, she observed the appellant carrying a pair of binoculars around his neck and saw a small safe, a jewelry box and some coins inside appellant’s car. She also testified that though she did not see it, the appellant stated he had a slide projector.

A search warrant for the mobile home in which appellant lived was executed and the projector taken from the complainant’s home was recovered. Finally, the evidence shows that during the time the officers were conducting the search of appellant’s trailer, appellant admitted to them that he had committed the burglary, knew what they were looking for and if they would agree not to file charges against him he would show them where additional property was located.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury verdict, as we are bound to do, we find the evidence amply sufficient to support the conviction and appellant’s eighteenth ground of error is overruled.

In his first ground of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to set aside the indictment or to strike therefrom certain paragraphs. The indictment was in four paragraphs— one alleging burglary of a habitation, two paragraphs alleging theft, and the concluding paragraph alleged that “before the commission of the offense alleged above” appellant had been convicted of aggravated robbery. Prior to trial, the State elected to proceed on the allegation of burglary of a habitation in the first paragraph, and in the punishment phase of the trial, the jury found that the defendant had previously been convicted as alleged. Appellant’s reliance upon Armstrong v. State, 170 Tex.Cr.R. 284, 340 S.W.2d 500 (1960) is misplaced as it has no application to the facts of this case. In Armstrong, two offenses were alleged but only one was enhanced. Such is not the case here. Appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

By his second ground of error, appellant contends that the indictment is fundamentally defective for failure to allege that the habitation was not then open to the public. The Court of Criminal Appeals in Garza v. State, 522 S.W.2d 693 (Tex.Cr.App.1975) has already ruled against appellant’s contention, holding that it is not necessary to allege that a habitation was not then open to the public. Appellant’s second ground of error is overruled.

In his third ground of error, appellant contends the indictment is fundamentally defective in that the paragraph alleging burglary did not aver a culpable mental state. The indictment alleged that the appellant entered the habitation “with intent to commit theft.” In Teniente v. State, 533 S.W.2d 805 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), the Court of Criminal Appeals upheld an identical indictment against an identical attack. Appellant’s third ground of error is overruled.

In his fourth ground of error, appellant contends that the trial court committed error when he permitted, over objection, the prosecutor in voir dire to inform the jury panel that the unexplained possession of recently stolen property is sufficient to raise a presumption or inference of guilt. The statements made by the prosecutor were in accordance with the law, Hardage v. State, 552 S.W.2d 837 (Tex.Cr.App.1977), and no error is presented. Appellant’s fourth ground of error is overruled.

In his sixth ground of error, appellant contends the two search warrants were defective and that the pistol and slide projector recovered as a result of the search under the warrants were not admissible in evidence. Appellant has no standing to contest the search of the Ward residence where the pistol was located because he neither lived there nor was he present when the search was conducted. Sullivan v. State, 564 S.W.2d 698 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). The warrant for appellant’s trailer house was obtained from the magistrate following *789 the execution of the search warrant on the Ward residence. Affiant to the affidavit for the search warrant for appellant’s residence named Sally Lawrence, Becky Ward and Detective Earl Musick as the informants who had given the information upon which the affidavit was based. Appellant contends that since the affidavit contains no statement or affirmation that Sally Lawrence, Becky Ward and Detective Mu-sick were reliable or that they had given information in the past, the affidavit was not a sufficient basis for a search warrant. In Woods v. State, 533 S.W.2d 16 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), the Court of Criminal Appeals cited with approval the 5th Circuit case of United States v. Bell, 457 F.2d 1231, to the effect that the requirements of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), are met when the hearsay information in an affidavit is derived from named persons who supplied detailed information suggesting direct knowledge of the information which they have given. Appellant’s sixth ground of error is overruled.

In his seventh ground of error, appellant contends that his statements to the searching officers that he had committed the burglary, and if they would not file charges against him he would show them where additional property was located were not admissible because appellant had not been warned in accordance with Tex.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. art. 38.22 (Vernon 1979).

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629 S.W.2d 786, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boone-v-state-texapp-1981.