Campbell v. State

900 S.W.2d 763, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 546, 1995 WL 107435
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 15, 1995
Docket10-94-019-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 900 S.W.2d 763 (Campbell 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
Campbell v. State, 900 S.W.2d 763, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 546, 1995 WL 107435 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

CUMMINGS, Justice.

Appellant Rory Martin Campbell was indicted on one count of burglary of a habitation in violation of TexPenal Code Ann. § 30.02 (Vernon 1989). He was charged with breaking and entering the home of Kathy and Phillip Mitchell and stealing from them several objects, including a refund check from the Internal Revenue Service made payable to both Kathy and Phillip that Campbell eventually cashed at a motorbank in Killeen. After he was convicted by a jury, the trial court sentenced him to fifty years of confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections — Institutional Division. Campbell brings six points of error on appeal: first, whether the trial court erred in permitting a prosecution witness to testify whose name was not timely provided to the defense; second, whether the prosecution’s belated disclosure to the defense of a witness it intended to call constituted reversible error; third, whether reversible error resulted from the prosecution improperly referring to Campbell’s failure to testify; fourth, whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support his conviction; and finally, in his fifth and sixth points, whether his indictment and his sentence are consistent. We affirm the judgment as reformed.

I. WHETHER THE STATE IMPROPERLY COMMENTED on Campbell’s FailüRE to Testify

In his third point, which we will address first, Campbell argues reversible error re-[766]*766suited when the prosecution on three different occasions improperly commented on his failure to testify. All three of the contested statements were made during the state’s closing argument at the end of the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. They are:

1. How do we know he went in? Because he’s in possession of the cheek and all the other property. How did he get it?
2. He is in unexplained possession of recently stolen property. We never heard anybody tell us how this got into his possession, but he had it right after the offense.
3. Everything puts this man in possession of this check. Explained? Yes, it’s explained. He hadn’t explained it, but we’ll explain it. It was taken, taken from a home.

Campbell’s counsel failed to object to any of the statements. Notwithstanding his failure to object, he argues his complaints against these statements have not been waived because they each constitute fundamental error. We will address each of the three statements to determine; first, if the statement was improper; second, if improper, whether the error was fundamental; and third, if fundamental, whether the error was reversible.

1. WHETHER THE COMMENTS WERE IMPROPER

It is a well-known, accepted, basic, and fundamental law in this state that the failure of an accused to testify may not be the subject of comment by the prosecution. Montoya v. State, 744 S.W.2d 15, 34 (Tex.Crim.App.1987) (on rehearing), cert. denied, 487 U.S. 1227, 108 S.Ct. 2887, 101 L.Ed.2d 921 (1988). Such comment is in violation of the privilege against self-incrimination contained in Article I, § 10, of the Texas Constitution and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 34; Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 611, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 1231, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965); Lopez v. State, 793 S.W.2d 738, 741 (Tex.App.—Austin 1990) (Onion, J., writing for the majority), pet. dism’d, improvidently grant-ed810 S.W.2d 401 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). Comments by the prosecution referring to a defendant’s failure to testify also offend the provisions of Tex.Code CRIM.ProcAnn. art. 38.08 (Vernon 1979), a mandatory statute, which provides:

Any defendant in a criminal action shall be permitted to testify in his own behalf therein, but the failure of any defendant to so testify shall not be taken as a circumstance against him, nor shall the same be alluded to or commented on by counsel in the cause.

The test to be applied to determine whether there has been a violation of article 38.08 by a prosecuting attorney is whether the language used was manifestly intended or was of such character that the jury would naturally and necessarily consider it to be a comment on the accused’s failure to testify. Allen v. State, 693 S.W.2d 380, 385 (Tex.Crim.App.1984) (on rehearing). It is not sufficient that the language might be construed as an implied or indirect allusion to his failure to testify. Montoya, 744 S.W.2d at 35. In applying this standard, the facts and circumstances of each case must be analyzed to determine whether the language used was improper. Id.

A. The FiRst Comment

The first statement was made when the prosecution responded to the defense’s statements at closing that the state had failed to carry its burden of proving that Campbell intentionally entered the victims’ home. The state responded in rebuttal by stating that the evidence showed Campbell was found to be in possession of several of the items stolen from the victims, namely, the I.R.S. refund check, a credit card, Kathy’s social security card, and her driver’s license.

There are four permissible areas of jury argument: (1) summation of the evidence; (2) reasonable deduction from the evidence; (3) answers to arguments from the defense; and (4) pleas for law enforcement. Willis v. State, 785 S.W.2d 378, 384 (Tex.Crim.App.1989), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 908, 111 S.Ct. 279, 112 L.Ed.2d 234 (1990). The prosecution’s first statement was a reason[767]*767able deduction from the evidence that Campbell’s recent possession of stolen properly strongly indicated that he was the person who burglarized the victims’ home. See Cantu v. State, 842 S.W.2d 667, 690 (Tex.Crim. App.1992) (Counsel is generally afforded wide latitude in drawing inferences from the record, as long as such inferences are reasonable and offered in good faith), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 3046, 125 L.Ed.2d 731 (1993); see also Williams v. State, 621 S.W.2d 613, 614 (Tex.Crim.App. [Panel Op.] 1981) (Recent unexplained possession of stolen property taken in a burglary is strong evidence to establish the defendant’s guilt of the offense), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 908, 102 S.Ct. 1755, 72 L.Ed.2d 165 (1982).

B. The Second Comment

If a prosecution’s remark called the jury’s attention to the absence of evidence that only the testimony from the appellant could supply, error results. Montoya, 744 S.W.2d at 35-36. The prosecution’s comment in the instant case, however, was not necessarily a reference to a point of evidence that only Campbell could have provided. When the prosecution’s comment is ambiguous with one interpretation being an improper reference to the defendant’s failure to testify and the other interpretation is that the statement was proper, it is permissible to find the jury only understood the proper reference. Gardner v. State, 730 S.W.2d 675, 700 (Tex.Crim.App.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 905, 108 S.Ct. 248, 98 L.Ed.2d 206 (1987).

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Bluebook (online)
900 S.W.2d 763, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 546, 1995 WL 107435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campbell-v-state-texapp-1995.