Brown v. State

154 S.W. 567, 69 Tex. Crim. 138, 1913 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 64
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 19, 1913
DocketNo. 2291.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 154 S.W. 567 (Brown 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
Brown v. State, 154 S.W. 567, 69 Tex. Crim. 138, 1913 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 64 (Tex. 1913).

Opinion

PRENDERGAST, Judge.

From a conviction for adultery with a fine of a thousand dollars, appellant appeals.

The complaint and information are in three counts. The first; charges that appellant, a man, and Olivia Coleman, a woman, on or about May 25, 1912, unlawfully lived together and had carnal intercourse with each other, he being then lawfully married to another person then living. The second count charges exactly the same thing, except that instead of charging that he was lawfully married to another, it charged that the woman was. The third count, which was not submitted to the jury, charged fornication. '

The Assistant Attorney-General, by motion, seeks to strike from the record the motion for new trial filed within two days after the trial and all subsequent proceedings of the court below, on the ground that on the day the case was tried appellant appealed and then entered into a proper appeal recognizance. We have carefully examined the record, and while it shows that on the day of the conviction and after *140 the conclusion of the trial, in order to prevent the appellant from then going to jail, the court permitted him to execute said appeal recognizance. But this was agreed at the time to be only temporary to secure his return two days later when his motion for new trial would be made and then acted upon and if overruled, a new recognizance would be entered into. He did return two days later, his motion for new trial was then filed, acted upon and overruled, and he then, for the first time, gave notice of appeal and then entered into a new recognizance, the court setting aside by express order the previous recognizance. All this clearly shows that the jurisdiction of this court did not attach on the execution of said first recognizance. No notice of appeal was then given and no notice of appeal was given until after the overruling of the motion for new trial at which time he gave said second recognizance. The motion of the Assistant Attorney-General is, therefore, overruled.

The appellant introduced no evidence. The evidence by the State was uncontradicted. It is unnecessary to give the testimony in full. We will merely give a summary of it and substantially quote in some particulars the testimony of some of the witnesses.

Wm. Jeffries testified that he was then, and for several years before had been, deputy sheriff of Navarro County, Texas, and had known appellant all his life. He said: “Some time in.February or March, 1912, the defendant came to me at Corsicana, Texas, and told me that a woman by the name of Olivia Coleman was in a bawdy house in that city, and that he, the defendant, was well acquainted with her father who lived at Kirven in Freestone County and that he, Brown, desired to get her out of the whorehouse and carry her back to her father’s house and wanted me to go to the whorehouse and use my best efforts to persuade the Coleman woman to leave the whorehouse and go with Brown to her father’s house. The defendant also told me that Olivia Coleman was a married woman whose husband lived at or near Kirven in Freestone County, and that a doctor had carried Olivia Coleman from Kirven and placed her in the house of prostitution. This house was run by a woman named Miss Frankie. I told the defendant that I would go with him and did go with him to the house where Olivia Coleman was staying. We went in the house and I called for Olivia Coleman. The defendant did not seem to know her as she was introduced to Brown. The defendant and I told Miss Frankie the purpose of our mission. The defendant and Olivia Coleman left the parlor and went upstairs together. They remained there about one hour and came down. At Brown’s request I went to see the woman two or three times for the purpose, as I thought, to persuade her to go "with the defendant to her father’s or sister’s home.”

On cross-examination this witness showed that appellant owned a large farm in Navarro County and another in Freestone County; that he had a home or house on his Navarro County farm and had *141 lived there for years; that a widow named Mrs. Lowe with several children had lived with him and kept house for him. He said: “I knew Mr. Brown’s first wife; she was divorced from him. A few years ago he married again in Freestone County. I do not know what has become of his last wife. I do not know whether she has ever been divorced from him or not. I do not know where she lives. No, sir, I do not know it to be a fact that his present wife is living in San Antonio, Texas; if I had known it I certainly would have said so. I do not know where Brown has been living during the last four or five months. He sometimes lives in Navarro County and he sometimes goes to Freestone County to his farm over there.”

Miss Frankie testified: That she Jived in Corsicana and was engaged in conducting a bawdy or sporting house there; that she lmew Olivia Coleman and saw her at court on the day of the trial. She said: “Some time in February or March of the year 1912, Olivia Coleman came to my house and wanted to stay with me. She did not go by the name of Olivia Coleman when she was in my house. I rented her a room and she stayed in my house a week and three or four days. When she came there she had no money. She was a sporting or lewd woman, but made very little money while at my house.” She then showed that she knew appellant and testified substantially as Mr. Jeffries did about his and appellant’s going to her house to see Olivia Coleman. She said: “The defendant wanted to talle with her. They left the parlor together and went upstairs to Olivia Coleman’s room and stayed there for an hour or an hour and a half. Mr. Brown visited Olivia at my house three or four times during her stay at my house. Whenever the defendant came he and Olivia Coleman would go upstairs to Olivia’s room. They would usually stay from an hour to two hours in the room. Of course, I do not know what happened in the room when they were there. I am not in the habit of spying around ydien any of my girls go to their rooms with men.”

On cross-examination this witness^ said: “I went upstairs once or twice while the defendant and Olivia Coleman were in the room together, the door was open. I do not know what they had been doing before I went upstairs and do not Jmow what they did after I left.” She further testified that appellant, when he came there with Mr. Jeffries on his first trip, told her that he wanted to get Olivia Coleman out of the house of prostitution for the purpose of taking her back to her father’s house in Freestone County; that her father was a personal friends of his and he wanted her to g® back to her father’s house or her sister’s who lived at Teague in Freestone County; that she never heard Brown say anything to Olivia Coleman at any time; that he never talked with her, in her (witness’) presence.

Mr. T. J. Griffith testified that he lived in Mexia, Texas, and that appellant and said Coleman woman lived on the same block where his residence was ^located; only an alley was between them. He said: *142 “Brown and Mrs. Olivia Coleman lived together at this house (the house they lived in) for about three months. I have seen them there together dozens of times. Brown had a horse and buggy and I frequently have seen him come in at nights and feed his horse there at the house. He was frequently away from the house in the daytime.

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

Related

Adams v. State
70 S.W.2d 172 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1934)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 S.W. 567, 69 Tex. Crim. 138, 1913 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 64, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-texcrimapp-1913.