Carter v. State

550 S.W.2d 282, 1977 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1047
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 30, 1977
Docket52550
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 550 S.W.2d 282 (Carter 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
Carter v. State, 550 S.W.2d 282, 1977 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1047 (Tex. 1977).

Opinions

OPINION

DOUGLAS, Judge.

Carter was convicted under Article 1408 of the former penal code for the offense of robbery by assault. After the court assessed the enhanced punishment at life, Carter gave notice of appeal.

The sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged. On February 20, 1973, appellant and a co-defendant, Jones,1 entered a jewelry store in San Antonio, and at gun point took from Elfriede Rhodes diamonds of the approximate value of between $70,-000 and $80,000.

Appellant contends that the court erred in admitting testimony at the guilt stage of the trial that he had been arrested in thirteen felony cases and that these had1 not resulted in convictions.

Appellant testified that he had pled guilty to two prior robberies. He said he did this because he was guilty of those offenses; that he pled not guilty to the instant offense because he did not commit the robbery. Appellant also judicially confessed to a shoplifting charge which was alleged to have occurred several months after the instant offense. Specifically, appellant was accused of stealing some men’s suits from J. C. Penney’s on July 10, 1973. He confessed to this to set up his defense that he was without funds shortly after he was alleged to have stolen some $70,000 to $80,000 worth of diamonds.

On direct examination he was also questioned about a separate burglary charge which was alleged to have occurred only three days after the diamond robbery. He testified to this to show his inability to make bail and further buttress the above-mentioned defensive theory. The following question was asked appellant concerning his detention for this separate burglary charge:

“Q. Okay. Now, that by no means — I want to make this clear to the jury — that was by no means the first time you had ever been in jail?
“A. No.”

He urges that his testimony did not open the door to evidence of all of his arrests and that, by virtue of the preceding question and answer, he did not leave the jury with the impression that the offenses he testified about were “the total extent of his trouble with the law.”

On cross-examination of the appellant the following occurred:

“Q. Have you ever been arrested for any other offenses besides the ones that you have testified about here today?
“A. Have I ever been arrested for any other charges?
“Q. Yes.
“A. No, sir, L haven’t:” '“

There was no objection to this questioning. The State later introduced the remaining extraneous arrests complained of.

[284]*284In Nelson v. State, 503 S.W.2d 543 (Tex.Cr.App.1974), we held that generally charges of offenses are inadmissible for impeachment purposes unless the charges resulted in final convictions for felony offenses or final convictions involving moral turpitude, none of which are too remote. However, we noted in Nelson an exception to this rule. The exception arises when the witness leaves a false impression of his “trouble” with the police. In that situation it is legitimate to prove that the witness had been “in trouble” on occasions other than those about which he offered direct testimony. Id., at 545; accord, Reese v. State, 531 S.W.2d 638, 641 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). This contention is overruled.

Appellant next contends “[t]he trial court erred by allowing, over defendant’s objection, the prosecutor to repeatedly and deliberately inform the jury that the defendant’s wife had assisted in the prosecution of the case against the defendant.”

In effect, he is contending that the State violated Article 38.11, V.A.C.C.P., which provides, in part: “Neither husband nor wife shall, in any case, testify as to communications made by one to the other while married.”

Here is what happened. Appellant offered a newspaper clipping and it was admitted. This was a reproduction of a composite drawing of the two alleged robbers which had his wife’s name on it. This occurred during cross-examination of Elfriede Rhodes, the complaining witness, when appellant’s counsel offered the clipping into evidence as Defense Exhibit No. 1. The artist’s sketch was based on Rhodes’ description. Following its admission counsel asked and received permission from the court to show it to the jury. Before doing so an additional inquiry was made of the court as follows:

“MR. KING (Appellant’s counsel): Your Honor, I just noticed that there are some names and phone numbers on here which apparently someone scribbled. I would ask that the jury be instructed to disregard it or have it covered. I didn’t know there were some names on here.”

Before the court could respond, appellant’s counsel said: “That’s all right, I’ll withdraw that.”

The clipping which was admitted contained the following notations:

“Vivian A. Carter 4-24-75 5:45 P.M.
W. L. Tefteller 4-24-75 Case #32625(73)"

The testimony of Detective Tefteller showed that he had interviewed a woman in his office on April 24, 1975, and that as a result of that interview he was able to assemble a photographic lineup which included a photograph of appellant. On April 29, 1975, Rhodes identified appellant from this lineup. Tefteller further stated that he and the woman had signed and dated the clipping. He was later recalled by the State and it was at this time that the question which is the basis of this ground of error arose. The prosecutor asked Teftel-ler:

“Q. All right. Now do you know of your own knowledge the relationship, if there is any, between Vivian A. Carter and the Defendant in this cause, Andrew Carter?
“A. They represented themselves as being man and wife.”

Counsel objected as to any further questions from the prosecutor concerning any conversations with Vivian Carter. The court sustained the objection. He then objected on the basis of privileged communication and the court replied, “I’ll sustain as to any hearsay.” Appellant got all the relief he asked for. He did not ask for an instruction not to consider the answer. He is in no position to complain.

Appellant contends that this testimony allowed the State to do indirectly what it is prohibited by Article 38.11, V.A.C.C.P., from doing directly, showing that appellant’s wife was assisting in the prosecution of the case even though she had not testified.

The complained of action in the instant case cannot be construed as the wife assisting in the prosecution of the husband as condemned in Davis v. State, 160 Tex.Cr.R. [285]*285138, 268 S.W.2d 152 (1954); Davis v. State, 140 Tex.Cr.R. 597, 146 S.W.2d 994 (Tex.Cr.App.1941), and Johnigan v. State, 482 S.W.2d 209 (Tex.Cr.App.1972).

In Davis

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Carter v. State
550 S.W.2d 282 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
550 S.W.2d 282, 1977 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1047, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carter-v-state-texcrimapp-1977.