Burnet v. State

205 S.W.2d 47, 150 Tex. Crim. 575, 1947 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 993
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 22, 1947
DocketNo. 23707
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 205 S.W.2d 47 (Burnet 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
Burnet v. State, 205 S.W.2d 47, 150 Tex. Crim. 575, 1947 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 993 (Tex. 1947).

Opinion

HAWKINS, Presiding Judge.

The offense is murder predicated on the killing of Laster B. Bruton. Appellant interposed the defense of insanity and self-defense, and applied for a suspended sentence. The latter was not recommended, but the jury found him guilty of murder without malice, and fixed the maximum punishment of five years therefor.

The State’s testimony shows that on the afternoon of February 22, 1947, appellant walked into the office of Bruton with a pistol and immediately upon entering, and while deceased was sitting down behind his desk, began to shoot him and continued to shoot until he had inflicted seven wounds from the effects of which deceased immediately died.

[577]*577The evidence for appellant is to the effect that he and his present wife were reared in the State of Ohio where they had known each other since they were children. Appellant left his native state when a boy, came to the State of Oklahoma where he attended the A. & M. College. Later he obtained employment at Oklahoma City with the Singer Sewing Machine Company. He was subsequently transferred from Oklahoma City to Tulsa and from Tulsa to Dallas. In the year 1936 he married his present wife and they lived together until he entered the Navy.

Testimony for appellant further shows that for approximately two years prior to the time appellant volunteered in the Navy the deceased had paid appellant’s wife marked attention, and by his wiles and blandishments had succeeded in alienating her affections; all of which was unknown to appellant. After appellant had volunteered his services to the Navy of the United States Mrs. Burnet, at deceased’s instance, secured appellant’s signature to a waiver for divorce, she telling him she might want to get one but declining to give him any information as to the real reasons. She claimed that she, as well as the deceased, obtained a divorce (arranged for by deceased) from their respective spouses at Matamoros, Mexico, and were married to each other on the same day in that foreign country. They immediately left Matamoros, came back to Dallas where they lived together as husband and wife until she secured a divorce from the deceased in October, 1945. Some time later she met her former husband, the appellant, and they were remarried. Not-with standing she had obtained a divorce from the deceased and remarried appellant, which deceased knew, he continued to press his attention on her over her protest and to her annoyance. She went to see the District Attorney of Dallas County to ascertain from him what could or might be done to prevent the deceased from annoying her. Nothing was done until about four or five days prior to the date of the killing when the appellant joined his wife in an application to the District Court for a restraining order to restrain the deceased from communicating with either of the plaintiffs, from molesting them, or either of them, etc. The restraining order was issued as prayed for, but the officers had not served the deceased with the same at the time of the killing. However, he had received information from some source that such an order had been issued.

Appellant’s wife further testified that about thirty or forty minutes before the deceased was killed he drove his automobile in - such manner as to “curb” the one in which appellant’s wife was riding. Deceased got out of his automobile, went to where she [578]*578was, cursed her, called her vile names, and struck her with his fist. She went immediately to a telephone, called appellant and told him what had occurred. Upon receiving this information from his wife appellant armed himself with a pistol, went to the office of the deceased and shot him. The killing occurred within fifteen or twenty minutes after appellant was informed by his wife of what had just occurred.

By bill of exception number one he complains because the Court declined to permit him to prove by the witness Patterson that a few days prior to the homicide he applied to Patterson for a transfer to some other place, and the reason why he desired a transfer; that at the time he made this request he was pale, nervous, morose, and wholly unlike himself.

The Court did permit the witness to testify to appellant’s appearance at the time but declined to permit the witness to state why appellant requested the transfer and declined to permit the witness to state in detail the conversation between himself and appellant. We see no error reflected by the bill. To have permitted the witness to relate the conversation between himself and appellant would have permitted appellant to bolster up his own testimony by self-serving declaration. His appearance, his conduct, and his exclamations immediately preceding the killing were admissible as tending to show his condition of mind, which the jury was authorized to consider in connection with other relevant facts to determine his mental state at the time of the killing.

In this connection we consider bill of exception number four which shows that appellant introduced as a witness John K. Vaughn, an employee of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, who testified that a few minutes before the shooting someone called appellant over the telephone, and that appellant left the building immediately after he had the conversation over the phone. The witness testified:

“I saw him use the telephone. Someone called him to the telephone, When he got to the telephone he had a conversation with someone. I heard what he was saying. When he hung up the telephone he made an exclamation. He spoke out loud about something and then he hung up the telephone. He then turned around right in front of me and grabbed his head, like this, (witness holding his head in his hands) and rubbed his head real hard. I asked him what was the matter. He just looked at [579]*579me like he was, well, just like he was half crazy. He then turned around and walked out.”

Counsel for appellant then asked the witness to relate what appellant said during the conversation and after he hung up the telephone. The State objected on the ground that same would be self-serving. If witness had been permitted to answer he would have testified further as follows:

“That while he was standing by the defendant and defendant was talking over the phone he heard the defendant say, ‘Honey, I am busy now and cannot get away.’ That he then said, ‘What is the matter with you? You sound like you are crying.’ That after a brief pause the defendant in a stunned and dazed condition hung up the telephone, threw his hands to his face and bent over in a shaking condition and exclaimed, ‘My God, Bruton has beaten up my wife. Oh, my God, I cannot stand it.’ ”

It was appellant’s contention that this evidence was admissible as res gestae. The trial court qualified the bill to show that he made no ruling which prevented the witness from testifying as to appellant’s physical or mental appearance or condition at the time, but only excluded statements made by appellant. In this we think the learned trial judge fell into error. If the statements made by appellant fall into the realm of res gestae proof of them would be admissible although they may also be self-serving. As was said in Gillespie v. State, 80 Tex. Cr. R. 432, 190 S. W. 146:

“The rule of res gestae is not limited to the State’s side of a case. That rule applies wherever there is a call for it, and one side of the case is as much entitled to the benefit of the rule as the other. The criterion is that it is res gestae.

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Related

Stanfield v. State
450 S.W.2d 635 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1969)
Bailey v. State
349 S.W.2d 602 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1961)
Webb v. State
268 S.W.2d 136 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
205 S.W.2d 47, 150 Tex. Crim. 575, 1947 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 993, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burnet-v-state-texcrimapp-1947.